Ecnec Favors Road Ventures Worth Rs 290bn

on 20/07/2020

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Thursday affirmed four significant street ventures worth Rs290 billion in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.         

TheEcnec meeting chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh approved the development of the 306-kilometre-long Hyderabad-Sukkur Motor-route at an expense of Rs165.67bn. The venture to be finished on the Build-Operate-Transfer premise conceives and includes a six-path, get to the controlled roadway.

The motorway is proposed to be a fast expressway office for productive and safe transportation, which will begin from Hyderabad (End of Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway M-9) and end at Naro Canal (Start of Sukkur-Multan Motorway M-5).

It passes through Jam-shoro, Tando Adam, Hala, Shahdadpur, Nawabshah, Moro, Dadu, NaushahroFeroze, Mehrab­pur, Rasool-pur, Larkana, Khairpur and Sukkur.

The task is now remembered for the open private association mode under which a private gathering will fund its development, work it for a characterized concession period and move it back to the National Highway Authority at no expense toward the finish of concession time of 25 years. The M-6 venture is assessed to take 33 months to finish.

Ecnec additionally affirmed the development of 47.55km Khyber Pass Economic Corridor venture at an expense of Rs77.9bn, development of 146km Hoshab-Awaran-Khuzdar Section of M-8 undertaking worth Rs26bn and land procurement for Swat Motorway Phase-II at an expense of Rs20bn.

The corridor venture comprises of two segments development of Peshawar-Torkham Motor­way and link-road interfacing motorway to Badabher (N-55) meeting N-5 bet­ween Chamkani and Jhagra (55km) long. It visualizes the development of 47.55-kilometre-long, four-path wide, double carriageway fast access-controlled motorway from Peshawar to Torkham.

The Peshawar-Torkham Motorway is a piece of the Peshawar-Jalalabad-Kabul Motorway Project. The extent of work incorporates the development of extensions, trades, flyovers, trams, underpasses, box ducts, dairy cattle creep, street furniture, seepage works, and holding dividers alongside unified offices. The undertaking was conceived based on a credit program offered by the World Bank.

The Hoshab-Awaran-Khuzdar Section of M-8 Project imagines the development of 146km street from Hoshab to Awaran at an expense of Rs26bn. The street begins from Hoshab and crosses through QilaDarwesh, Ashal, Dandar, Sahar Kalat, Gorari, Laljan, Duddar, Razai, Nurdin, Madak, Malar, LabachDargo lastly ends at Awaran. The extent of works incorporates the movement of utilities and securing of 29,200 kanals of land for 100m of Right of Way.

The Swat Motorway Phase-II venture visualizes securing of 10,000 kanals of land for development of four-path motorway of 79.69km length from Chakdara to Fatehpur as Phase-II — augmentation of the Swat Motorway. The motorway is proposed as a rapid expressway office for effective and safe transportation. The Right of Way proposed for the motorway is 50m.

While Dealing Senate Body Blamed Govt. Being Incompetence With PSM Issue

on 20/07/2020

The Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production on Wednesday communicated alarm over the administration’s treatment of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and requested that issues faced by resigned workers ought to be settled on an immediate basis.

          The committee, chaired by Senator Ahmad Khan, said thatPSM was the profitable mill in the country, it was the source of bread and butter for the thousands of families and also the playing a significant role in the economic development.

          Muhammad Hamad Azhar, Industries Minister mentioned that the mill was shut down in 2015 by the last government.

          The minister said that a part of PSM land were being given on lease. He further said that the industry needs a serious attention for bringing it in a money-spinning sector.

The minister presented the Govt.’s policy regarding PSM that it would run in a joint effort with private enterprises, including that it has not been privatized and there will be bidding for joint venture till the end of the year.

Azhar additionally said he has composed letters to 12 worldwide organizations of which six have just visited the steel plants.

He told the council that in 2008, PSM had a store of Rs10 billion, however the circumstance started to fall apart not long after as the deals dropped because of low steel costs.

Azhar also criticized the actions of previous governments as around 4,500 workers were made permanent in 2010 regardless of a running shortfall.  While the normal creation of PSM in 2010 dropped to around 40 percent and later it was just 6pc and the plants were shut down by the last government in 2015.

Air pollution in US ‘causes 100,000 deaths a year’

on 16/07/2020

A new study provides insight into the causes of poor air quality in the US and its effects on human health.

Conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota, the study has found that air pollution from sources in the United States leads to 100,000 deaths in the US each year. About half of these deaths are from burning fossil fuels, but the researchers also identified less obvious sources of lethal pollution. The researchers believe that by targeting specific emission sources, this could reduce the mortality across the country.

“People usually think of power plants and cars, but nowadays, livestock and wood stoves are as big a problem. It’s also our farms and our homes,” said Sumil Thakrar, a postdoctoral research associate in the Departments of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering and Applied Economics.

The researchers found that while some sectors of the economy, such as electricity production and transport, have reduced pollution amid government regulations, other sectors such as agriculture and residential buildings have received less attention. 

For the study, the team analysed data from the Environmental Protection Agency on all pollution sources in the country, including their location and how much pollution they emit. Then, they used newly-developed computer models to determine where pollution travels and how it affects human health.

The researchers focused on one harmful pollutant: fine particulate matter, also known as PM2.5, which is commonly associated with heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and other diseases. 

In examining the data, the team found around half of all PM2.5 air pollution-related deaths are from burning fossil fuels, with the remaining largely from animal agriculture, dust from construction and roads, and burning wood for heating and cooking.

“Essentially we’re asking: ‘what’s killing people and how do we stop it?’” Thakrar explained. “The first step in reducing deaths is learning the impact of each and every emission source.”

In the US, air quality is largely regulated by the federal government, which sets maximum allowable levels of pollution in different areas.  States and local governments are then charged with enforcing those limits. The researchers suggest regulators can improve this broad-brush approach by focusing instead on reducing emissions from specific sources.

“Targeting particularly damaging pollution sources is a more efficient, and likely more effective, way of regulating air quality,” said Jason Hill, a professor at the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering. 

“Think of springing a leak in your boat while out fishing. Why fret too much about how much water is coming in when what you really should be doing is plugging the hole?”

The researchers also found that as well as soot — such as the exhaust from a dirty bus — or road dust, PM2.5 also forms from other pollutants like ammonia which can have a detrimental impact on human health. 

Ammonia is released from animal manure and the fertilisation of crops. But unlike many other sources of PM2.5, ammonia is not regulated to any large extent, despite being responsible for about 20,000 deaths, or one-fifth of all deaths caused by PM2.5 pollution from human activity, the researchers said. 

To improve air quality in the future, the researchers suggest more drastic reductions of emissions from sources that are already regulated, such as electricity generation and passenger vehicles. 

Furthermore, they suggest novel ways to target pollutant sources that have not been as extensively regulated, such as manure management, changing personal diets and improving formulations of cleaning supplies, paints and inks.

The researchers said this study — the underlying data and results of which are available to the public — can complement current efforts to mitigate climate change and other environmental problems.

“Our work provides key insights into the sources of damage caused by air pollution and suggests ways to reduce impacts,” Thakrar concluded. “We hope policymakers and the public will use this to improve the lives of Americans.”

ER

Pakistan-born Scientist Leading the Scientist Forum in Germany’s Society

on 16/07/2020

Germany’s renowned Max Planck Society has assigned the duty of Vice-President to Pakistan-born Scientist Asifa Akhtar. She is the first international female vice president of the biology and medicine section at Max Planck Society.

The Max Planck Society is Germany’s best exploration association. Since its foundation in 1948, no less than 18 Nobel laureates have risen out of the positions of its researchers, putting it on a standard with the best and most esteemed exploration organizations around the world.

During her term of office, Ms Akhtar will be responsible for the foundations of the segments and will likewise be the contact individual for the Max Planck Schools.

            “Scholarly science is a delightful case of incorporation since you have individuals from everywhere throughout the world trading information past limits, societies or bias,” she expressed her views in an interview.

            Being Vice-President Ms Akhtar also wants to end the biasness regarding the difference of genders. According to her women are no less than men in the field of science. Several women are working extraordinarily and putting their jolly effort in the research work for the Max Planck Society.

            Asifa Akhtar was born in Karachi, she acquired her doctorate at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London, UK, in 1997.

She at that point moved to Germany, where she was a Postdoctoral individual at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and the Adolf-Butenandt-Institute in Munich from 1998 to 2001.

Ms Akhtar was granted the Early Career European Life Science Organization Award in 2008, EMBO participation in 2013, and the Feldberg Prize in 2017. She was additionally chosen as an individual from the National Academy of Science Leopoldina in 2019.

ER

NEPRA Has Decided to NTDC’s Plan Strict Scrutiny Of

on 15/07/2020

National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has decided to conduct a hearing on NTDC’s ‘Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) 2047, on Wednesday (15th July 2020). National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) have designed the project to cover the future horizon of energy for 28 years i.e. 2020 to 2047.

            Load forecast and generation capacity expansion and despatch optimization exercises are the two significant progressions on which this generation is composed. Whereas, these processes need statistical and computation efforts and a purposeful made software for more exact results.  

            However, the planning has been done to meet the demand of 43,820 MW by the year 2030, a generation capacity of 76,391 MW is required. On the other hand, to fulfill the demand of electricity by the year of 2030, the share will also be taken from Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) resources i.e., 10,327 MW of wind and 12,793 MW of solar, respectively.

            Whereas, the case of the demand by the year of 03,065 MW by the year 2047, a total of 168,246 MW of nominal generation capacity is required. And 32,948 MW of STs on Thar coal, 4,749 MW of CCGTs and 25,828 MW of OCGTs on RLNG, 55,836 MW of hydro, 1,000 MW of CASA, 913 MW of bagasse, 4,407 MW of nuclear, 5,297 MW of imported coal, 26,921 MW of solar and 10,327 MW of wind-based generation have been made available by the software. A total of 97,080 MW of nominal generation capacity has been optimized by the software during the period 2031-47.

            As far as the concern of RLNG-based plants and imported coal-based plants share will decrease, i.e. 26% to 11% in 2025 and then eventually falling to merely 1% beyond 2034 and from 18% in 2020 to only 1% by the year 2047 respectively. Apart from these energy plants the share of wind and solar in the overall energy mix increases from about 3% in 2020 to 23% in 2030.

            The end year of the IGCEP (2047) the system will have around 168,200 MW which is right now (2020) 33,000+ MW. A Major increase in the capacity is observed in the hydropower, local coal, VRE and RLNG based plants. New VRE plants are suggested by PLEXOS being a cheaper source of energy. This results in the capacity addition of around 35,762 MW of solar and wind up till 2047. Moreover, the results also show the capacity of 45,929 MW hydropower, 1,562 MW imported coal, 32,345 MW local coal, 27,071 MW RLNG, the 3,177 MW nuclear energy and 654 MW bagasse power plants are selected by the software.

            The rate of GDP growth scenario forecast, energy generation in GWh grows at Cumulative Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4%, 5%, 5.6%, 6.1% and 4.6% by 2025, 2030, 2030, 2035, 2040 and 2047 respectively. Similarly, peak demand in MW grows at CAGR of 4.9%, 5.3%, 5.6%, 6.1% and 4.6% by 2025, 2030, 2030, 2035, 2040 and 2047 respectively.

            Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), has decided to RLNG with coal and hydel projects as per the direction of the GOP. Then RLNG can be used in other projects. PPIB also is also show its concern on the period of ICGEP and said that 27 years are too long. CODs of 720 MW Karot HPP and 884 MW Suki Kinari lIPP (both under construction/committed category project) have been mentioned in IGCEP as 2022 and 2023, respectively. PPIB has recently signed agreements for Kohala hydropower project and Patrind hydropower project.

            Thar/Local Coal based power project also needs sufficient block allocation in IGCEP as it was financed from International Multilateral Financing Agencies. PPIB also demands that IGCEP should only consider those aspects which are effective and profitable in time-wise and cost-wise.

            The KP government has also shown its concerns over IGCEP due to which high level changes in bureaucracy of Power Division were made as the provincial government was unhappy with the plan.

Whereas, Wapda is also not giving so much importance to IGCEP as it is working on three hydropower projects; Dasu, Mohmand and Diamer which are expected to start electricity generation between the year 2024 – 2028 and calling it a real game changer for power division. Chairman Wapda raised the question on the authenticity of IGCEP report and said that civil contract for the Diamer Basha Mega project will be expected to complete in 2028  and the project will generate 4500 MW Power with annual energy of 18097 GWh but the IGCEP 2047 indicated the commissioning of the Project during 2043, which is too far.

            The present situation of Pakistan claims that the projects of power evacuation should be completed on an immediate basis specially the projects located in the tough terrain of Northern Areas hardly accessible and having limited flexibility in the narrow transmission corridor.

            The government of AJ&K is giving importance to the hydropower option in generating energy and wanted a fast pace in the implementation of these energy projects.

            According to IGCEP, it has decided to consult every possible source to improve the energy sector in Pakistan, it also has plans to work on alternative and renewable energy generation targets and promising new technologies in the future of Pakistan.

            Whereas, the energy sector needs a very detail planning, which should be revised in every five years. IGCEP should work on reducing the randomness and also trying lessen the risks which will attract the potential investors.