ENGINEERING POST February 2022 Consultant loungE ENGINEERING POST www.enggpost.com 51
ENGINEERING POST February 2022 Minerals Sector of Pakistan Engineering Post Report country. These include coal, copper, ect “ Establishment of gold, chromite, mineral salt and National Mineral Data Pakistan is endowed with several other minerals. Despite of Centre” has since been huge reserves of minerals all these huge resources , the min- launched at the federal covering an area of 600000 eral sector is showing slow per- level with Rs 295 million square kilometer due to its unique formance and its contribution to cost for maintaining the geological condition. Fortunately, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data repository. Pakistan have been blessed with remained at just 2.38 per cent dur- Another initiative has all type of rock from pre-Cambrian ing FY 2021. been taken called “Legal to recent with exceptional geologi- The federal government is well Consultancy Services” for cal and geomorphologic features. aware of this hidden treasure and drafting of model mineral There are as many as 92 known taking all cognizant measures in agreements and formula- to develop the mineral sector but minerals out of which 52 are com- this regard which included: tion of uniform regulatory regime enough remains to be done to en- mercially exploited throughout the An investment facilitation proj- at a cost of Rs 100 million for in- hance the sector to fully exploit the troducing an internationally com- natural resources. This sector is petitive framework. lagging behind despite its huge po- Action is also underway for re- tential, due to interconnected and vamping of Pakistan Mineral De- overlapping issues like poor regu- velopment Corporation (PMDC) latory framework, insufficient in- and restructuring of Geological frastructure at mines sites, Survey of Pakistan (GSP). outdated technology installed, Process of the stakeholders con- semi-skilled labour, low financial sultation has also been initiated support and lack of marketing. for policy formulation for promot- There is a huge potential in ing the use of indigenous coal re- Pakistani mineral sector and es- sources for synthesis of gas and tablishment of Balochistan Min- liquid fuels. eral Exploration Company is Federal government has also ex- indeed a great step in this devel- tended services for special devel- opment ladder and an encouraging opment packages to the provincial sign for global mining players to mineral sectors. invest in the Mineral Sector of Continued support is being Pakistan. maintained and extended to facili- Extraction of principal minerals tate smooth operation of mineral in the country include Coal, Natu- sector projects: Saindak Copper- ral Gas, Crude Oil, Chromite, Gold, Duddar Lead-Zinc, Barite- Magnesite, Dolomite, Gypsum, Lead Zinc , Chiniot Iron Ore and Lime Stone, Rock Salt, Sulphur, mining projects of rock salt and Barytes, Iron Ore, Soap Stone, coal etc. Marble, Bauxite, Quartz among Although efforts are underway several others. 52
ENGINEERING POST February 2022 53
ENGINEERING POST February 2022 AEDB opts competitive bidding of category III wind and solar projects The chief executive officer of sion in the plan. tion capacity expansion plan category II projects. The com- the alternative energy de- The information about the 2021 had been approved by pany will provide relevant infor- velopment board (AEDB) IRZs had not yet been docu- NEPRA and will be helpful in mation and IRZs for the held a meeting to analyze the mented in the RFP according to the addition of 1000MW capacity connection of any power unit to IRZs for carrying out the compet- the board. from wind and solar power each, the 220kv main line. itive bidding of category III solar NTDC had shared the infor- in the year 2024. All of this information will also and wind projects. The IRZs mation of the IRZs to the AEDB In this regard, the DISCOs been incorporated in the RFP were provided by the NTDC. It and a consent from the relevant were requested IRZs other than documents. The board asked the was decided in the meeting to go DISCO was required for the in- the ones approved by NTDC authorities to provide relevant for the competitive bidding plan corporation of the data in the re- which will help the board achieve information as soon as possible for the projects. The energy proj- quest for proposal documents. the goal in 2024. for the finalization of the cate- ects approved by NEPRA were CEO AEDB highlighted in the The NTDC was also asked to gory III projects bidding plan at not considered by the power divi- meeting that indicative genera- evacuate their power from the its earliest. 54
PC-1 of Gulberg Elevated Expressway Project approved The PC-1 of the elevated expressway has been The approval was granted during a recent meet- congestion on roads is one of the main reasons of approved, in principle, by Chief Minister ing of the governing body of Lahore Development environmental pollution this expressway will help (CM) Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar. Authority (LDA) which was chaired by the CM. decrease pollution as well. The elevated expressway project envisages con- struction of an elevated road from main Gulberg to Babu sabu interchange Motorway (M-2). This will be a signal free corridor and is expected to sig- nificantly reduce traffic congestion on the roads of Lahore. During the meeting the CM directed the con- cerned authorities to determine the financing mechanism of the elevated expressway project and stressed for early completion of the project. It has previously been discussed that the project will be financed on the basis of Public Private Parner- ship (PPP) mode. Sadia Sohail MPA, LDA’s Vice Chairman Naeem-ul-Haq, Vice Chairman WASA Sheikh Im- tiaz Mehmood, Housing Secretary, Lahore Com- missioner and governing body members attended the meeting. It is estimated that the expressway would save an average time of 30 minutes on the route and would have a capacity of 73,000 vehicles per day. It will provide an east-west route to commuters of Lahore and is aimed at decreasing the huge bur- den of vehicles on existing roads. According to the environment impact assessment (EIA) the traffic
Search
