ISLAMABAD
The Board of PPIB on Wednesday extended the last date for the submission of expression of interest (EoI) for 6600MW Gadani Power Park and also revised the last date of the Letter of Support for 870MW Sukki Kinari hydropower project.
The decision was taken in the 97th meeting of the Board of PPIB held under the chair of Federal Minister for Water & Power Khawaja Muhammad Asif.
According to sources, extension in EoI of Gaddani Power Park was decided after realising lack of interest from investors and the Board approved the extension in closing date by 29 September 2014.
It is worth mentioning that during 95th and 96th meetings officials claimed that they have been receiving very encouraging response from investors, for the 6,600MWMW Pakistan Power Park Project at Gadani, worth approximately Rs144.6 billion. On the encouraging remarks process for the project was initiated.
But in Wednesday meeting, the board was informed that due to ongoing security situation in the country investors were reluctant.
“The expected response could not be achieved and many prominent investors have requested extension of date in submission of EoIs”, the board was informed.
The project has been criticised since its commencement, however CDWP and then ECNEC cleared the construction of infrastructure in July this year, despite, reportedly, sketchy feasibility, rough estimates and concerns over plans to award a contract by bypassing a competitive process. During the meeting, it was also decided to extend the Letter of Support of 870MW Sukki Kinari hydropower project on River Kunhar, District Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which is included in the “early harvest projects” priority list of the China-Pakistan Energy Corridor.
The PPIB officials claimed that this extension will allow the project to take necessary measures to implement the project at the earliest.
According to a PPIB press release, the government is taking all possible steps to bridge the gap between demand and supply of electricity in order to accelerate the socio-economic growth of the country.
We are optimizing the available resource base for upcoming power generation projects while at the same time making the existing power generation and distribution facilities efficient and also controlling line losses, Minister Khawaja Asif said according to the release.
The Board also desired removal of all bottlenecks for early development of 132MW Rajdhani Hydropower Project in AJ&K with due cooperation of the Government of Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
The meeting was attended by Sohail Akbar Shah, Additional Secretary Ministry of Water & Power/Managing Director PPIB, Zafar Mahmood, Chairman WAPDA, representatives of Ministry of Finance, Planning Division, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Federal Board of Revenue, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces and AJ&K, a private sector member, besides Executives Directors and Directors of PPIB and other senior government officials.