Thar Foundation gets NEPRA’s recognition

on 17/01/2023

CSR initiatives undertaken by Thar Foundation with the support of Engro PowerGen Ltd (EPTL) in Tharparkar earn recognition from NEPRA under its first Annual CSR Award ceremony held in Islamabad.
NEPRA, the power sector regulator of Pakistan has taken an initiative “Power With Prosperity” to encourage power sector companies to undertake CSR initiatives that make local communities beneficiaries of power projects.
EPTL was selected as one of the companies implementing the best CSR program in the power sector. The prestigious award was received by the CEO of EPTL Mr. Manzoor Zaidi, GM CSR Mr. Naseer Memon, and Ms. Fatima Khushnood.
EPTL team received the award from NEPRA Chairman Mr. Tauseef H. Farooqi in the Award ceremony.
The Award is a recognition of community services of EPTL/Thar Foundation rendered in its area of operations in Tharparkar

NESPAK signs long term agreement with UNDP

on 17/01/2023

NESPAK has signed a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for providing engineering and design services on a Call-Off Contract basis in countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives. It was stated by Dr. Tahir Masood, Managing Director NESPAK here on Wednesday.
The types of Projects required to be undertaken under LTA include rehabilitation of hospitals, schools & roads, retrofitting of buildings, sewerage & drainage, vehicular access roads and bridges, buildings, rehabilitation of Governmental buildings, small scale hydropower plants, small scale solar power plants, wells, water harvesting, irrigation and catchment control, health clinics, medical centers and marine/coastal infrastructure.
NESPAK scope of services includes data collection, surveys and investigations, detailed design, tender documentation and construction supervision of above-mentioned projects to be financed by a variety of UNDP partners.
Meanwhile, NESPAK has also entered into an agreement with United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for providing engineering consultancy services for Strategic Grain Reserve-Food Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. NESPAK scope of work includes project planning, topographic survey, geotechnical investigations, detailed design, tender documentation and construction supervision of prefabricated warehouses to be constructed at Sakhakot, Malakand. n

How to face a challenge? IMS Engineering’s story may be a lesson for all!

on 17/01/2023

The Covid – 19 pandemic brought many challenges to businesses worldwide and in Pakistan how IMS Engineering faced them is a lesson that will be a guide not only for the company but also for many others to learn from.
Initially, challenges such as disruption in the supply chain, cost escalation of material, devaluation of the rupee, etc
posed no issues, recalls Zeeshan Anwar Siddiqi when asked how IMS Engineering faced the challenges put forth by Covid – 19 pandemic, adding a few months later global supply chain began to affect because of delays in shipments, and then further issues relating to the availability of devives (like chips) started rising.
In sum, receiving deliveries became a challenge. We then started looking for replacements etc that also created quite many issues.
How long would such issues persist and how did you satisfy your clients?
Our clients had their own targets and they were moving keeping in view their targets because of Covid – 19 pandemic. They had to meet their targets being pharma companies and thus the pressure was coming to us. To meet their targets, we looked towards multiple suppliers with who we are in business already. We have many international partners like we have Schneider Electric as our big partner and then we assessed various options with their help to meet the demand.
HVACR is a vast field, what areas does the IMS deal in and how is it doing?
IMS was established in 1996–some 25 years ago–by Mahmood Sahib having his background in controls. He knew at that time that the future is embedded with instrumentation and building automation.
Initially, his initiative aimed at instrumentation and management systems. We also sailed with Schneider Electric and like it, we also evolved into IMS. We developed our portfolio keeping the pull and push of the market. We kept on expanding on many integrated systems required in the market.
IoT has swept every system, how is it affecting our market, and also how does IMS convince the clients to go for a business management system especially in a society like ours?
You are right, nowadays our data is also going on the system based on IoT and thus people remain informed of their system while being remote. Each alarm hits you in case of change on the site. In the Schneider Electric systems, we have cyber security systems to address the issues relating to the security of data n

ECNEC approves 4 projects costing over Rs448 bn

on 17/01/2023

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved four development projects, mostly in Punjab province, involving an estimated cost of Rs448.36bn.
Three of the four schemes costing Rs322bn are based in Punjab
The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) had already cleared these projects on technical grounds and recommended to Ecnec their formal approval.
The Ecnec approved Punjab Arterial Roads Improvement Programme (PARIP) at a total estimated cost of Rs129.944bn.
The project, sponsored by the Punjab government, envisages the construction of 535-km of dual carriageway highway sections between various cities in Punjab.
The PARIP is to be spread over Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Layyah, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Vehari, Okara, Pakpattan and Sahiwal in Punjab.
The executing agency of the project is Planning and Development Board, Punjab.
About Rs14.164bn funding for the project would be arranged by the Punjab government. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) would provide Rs64.972bn while Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) would finance the remaining part of Rs50.808bn.
The project involves construction of 535-km section of a dual carriageway highway between various cities in Punjab.
The project would involve rehabilitation of existing carriageway as well as new construction of a second carriageway within the ‘Right of Way’ available and acquired where needed. It is meant to improve the transportation system through upgrade and dualisation of the highway network.
The meeting also conditionally approved Punjab Rural Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PRSWSSP) amounting to Rs96.202bn ($553 million) to be executed by Punjab Rural Municipal Services Company in 16 tehsils of mostly southern Punjab with directions to reduce its implementation time and carry out it initially as pilot project in some tehsils and submit its report to Ecnec for further consideration.
The project has been designed to provide basic civic amenities such as water supply, sanitation and solid waste management in rural areas of selected tehsils of Punjab.
The World Bank has already approved $442 million financing to projects to be mostly implemented in southern districts of Punjab and support vulnerable rural communities in Punjab through improved water supply and sanitation infrastructure services.
The project prioritises rural settlements, where water contamination and poor sanitation practices are more prevalent, causing high levels of illness and child stunting.
The World Bank expects the project to help more than six million rural residents in the poorest districts of Punjab to reduce child stunting and address areas at high risk to droughts and water scarcity.
Ecnec also approved Kharian-Rawalpindi Motorway project to be executed on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode at a total cost of Rs95.81bn.
The project envisages construction of 4-lane access-controlled 117.20-km in length motorway from Kharian to Rawalpindi.
Ecnec also approved Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme K-IV, 260 MGD Phase –I at a revised cost of Rs126.405bn. — ERMD

China’s machinery giant makes contribution in wind power

on 17/01/2023

China’s machinery giant, Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology has made another contribution to Pakistan’s wind power construction as its crane completed lifting of the largest wind turbine in Pakistan.
Zoomlion’s ZCC5800 crane lifted largest wind turbine (2.5 megawatts) having weight of nearly 90 tons at a central height of 90 meters.
The mobile crane has carried out numerous wind construction projects in Pakistan so far including Indus Wind, ACT 2 Wind, Lakeside Energy, Din Energy, Tricom Wind and Liberty Wind.
Up to now, as the largest crane manufacturer in wind power construction in Pakistan, Zoomlion has built more than 500 megawatts of renewable capacity for Pakistan, said Simon, Country Manager of Zoomlion Concrete Machinery Overseas Marketing Company, in an interview.
Driven by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Pakistan has started to develop wind power projects to promote the concept of green economy. Wind power makes up more than 6% of the total electricity production in the country. At present, there are nearly ten ZCC5800W active in Pakistan helping the development Pakistani green energy, CEN reported.
Zoomlion entered the Pakistani market for the first time in 2004. For more than ten years, it has been helping Pakistan’s economic and social development by registering local subsidiaries for in-depth localization development, exporting high-quality products to participate in local construction.
So far, the number of products and equipment of the company in the Pakistan market has reached nearly 2,000. Besides, its Pakistani subsidiary has also developed into a fully localized platform with multiple functions such as product and technical training for local employees and clients and developed local partners.
“With the development of the Belt and Road Initiative and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), we will continue to promote the localization strategy by further enhancing the localization construction and the function construction of subsidiaries, making greater contributions to the friendship and economic development of the two countries,” Simon concluded assuredly. — ERMD