ISLAMABAD: The Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) has so far unearthed approximately four million tons of coal from Thar Coal Block II and supplied to the power plant located at the site.

According to an official of the company, the supply of coal from Thar Coal Block-II has helped generation of about 4,305 GWh of electricity to power one million households and benefit around 7 million Pakistani across the country.

The Thar Coal Block II has an estimated total reserves of about 2.04 billion tons of coal which is sufficient to produce thousands of megawatt electricity for decades.

The entire coal production is being supplied to Engro Powergen Thar Limited (EPTL) which is executing a 2×330 MW mine-mouth power plant.

Both these projects are part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and are have been constructed in collaboration with Chinese contractors.

The official said that the SECMC planned to rapidly expand the mine in Block-II to reach its optimum capacity to produce 5000 MWs by 2024 which will drastically reduce the coal price making Thar Block-II not only the cheapest block in Thar, it will be the cheapest base load energy resource in the country with a power tariff of approximately 5 US cents per KWH.

The official added that the coal in Thar is called lignite which ideally suits for producing electricity.

With a cumulative thickness around 26 meters, there are enough coal reserves in Block-II to produce 5000 MW for the next 50 years.