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Home »Fuel and Energy » Pakistan » Work on Bin Qasim plant not started yet: Rs 27 billion World Bank money not used by KESC in 10 months

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  • May 23rd, 2009
  • Comments Off on Work on Bin Qasim plant not started yet: Rs 27 billion World Bank money not used by KESC in 10 months
The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has not yet used Rs 27 billion sanctioned by the World Bank (WB) for its 560 MW Bin Qasim power plant project. The KESC management has spent Rs 8 billion, a huge amount which the utility had loaned from a local banking consortium last year as mobilisation charges for Bin Qasim power plant project, on account of day to day expenses.

According to sources the amount was not be released by WB as the utility had not started work on the project during the last 10 months despite signing an agreement with a Chinese company in June 2008. As the company failed to pay Rs 8 billion of mobilisation charges (advance money) to the foreign firm, the Chinese company did not start the work at the given time, they said.

Though the contract for a 560 MW of dual-fired combined cycle plant at Bin Qasim was initially signed by the previous management of the company and also made other required arrangements, the present management did nothing during last 10 months but spending on daily expenses the already arranged money, they added.

Sources said that Al-Jomaiah, previous management of KESC, had also vacated the site and road for the proposed power plant, and even made arrangements to host around 400 Chinese engineers and other staff but all such things remained as it was on take-over by the company by Abraaj Capital, the present management, in August 2008.

They said that the company's management is not interested in investing in the company as it could have started working on the important project if it was sincere, in its management for the last 10 months. The three years tenure of the project was to start power generation in 2010 but due to the negligence of the company the project seems unlikely to be completed even by 2012.

Talking to Business Recorder, Mazhar Choudary, general secretary of KESC Share Holders Association (SHA), said that the new management's claim of bringing the original prices of the project down by $15 million recently was only a delaying tactic as it has done nothing practically. "No one knows how and on what condition the price was reduced," he said, adding that if the agreed price for the project was high, then it should have done the same earlier.

He also claimed that despite the agreement with government the present management of the company has not invested a single penny from its agreed money of $361 million. However, when contacted the official spokesman of KESC said the company has recently paid the mobilisation charges to the vendors and the work on the project would be started soon.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2009


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