The Hong Kong-based Consolidated Electric Power Asia (CEPA) has received a letter of support from the government for an $8,000 million project to build a series of coal-fired power plants in the southern province of Sind.

The letter of support will enable CEPA to conclude other legal formalities for the project. It allows CEPA to establish eight 660-MW projects in Pakistan. CEPA will use imported coal for the first two plants, but local coal supplies thereafter, CEPA's Gordon Wu said. 'After Hub power, this is the most significant (power) project, and the largest single investment in the country,' Wu said at a local press conference on 13 June.

Wu signed a memorandum of understanding in October to set up a 5,280- MW power station, transmission lines and infrastructure, including roads and dedicated rail links to the inland Thar coal reserves (MEED 21:10:94). CEPA's original plan called for a $5,500 million power station on the coast with eight units of 660 MW each. The first was due to come on-stream by December 1997 and the last by 2000. Wu also planned to install a $2,000 million transmission network and invest in the development of the Thar coal fields.