960414

140 mw power

plant near Quetta,

pact signed with

US firm

QUETTA: Coastal Corporation of USA in joint venture with Habibullah Energy Limited is setting up 140 mw fired combined cycle power plant near Quetta, this was announced by Director, Tariq Saifullah Paracha here on Sunday.

He said Habibullah Coastal Power Company has met all the conditions including signing of the implementation agreement, power purchase agreement and gas supply agreement.

Habibullah Coastal Power Company has given notice to its turnkey contractor Fiat Avio for proceeding to construct the power plant.

If no delays take place the power plant will come into commercial production by end of December 1997.

At present Balochistan is suffering from power shortage of 300 mw with lot of loadshedding and voltage fluctuations which cause severe damage to electric bulbs, household appliances such as refrigerators, deep freezers, airconditioners and electric motors of industrial plants and of agricultural tubewell water pumps. This 140 mw power plant will establish the power system at Quetta and enable Wapda to provide electric power at steady voltage with much less loadshedding.-PPI