HYDERABAD, Feb 28: The adviser to the Sindh chief minister on environment and alternate energy, Mr Noman Saigal, has said that a windmill power project will be launched in Gharo at an initial cost of $875 million in collaboration with some foreign countries to meet 30 per cent shortfall of electricity in Sindh.

He said that the project would create around 17,000 jobs and it would be ensured that the area people received a proper share in the jobs. He was talking to journalists during his visit to the office of the Environmental Protection Agency here on Monday.

He said that there was a 30 per cent shortage of power supply in Sindh where its consumption was increasing due to a growth in industrial sector. He said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had announced that efforts would be made to meet at least 10 per cent electricity needs through other sources like sun and winds.

He added that the Alternative Energy Development Board based in the prime minister's secretariat, was looking into the issues. The adviser said that the prime minister had asked the board to attract foreign investment in this sector and launch alternate energy production projects on government-owned land to avoid land acquisition issues.

He said that he had been working on this project over the past five months and had recently visited the Gharo site where speed of wind was usually fast and 19,700 acres of government land had been selected for project.

He said that it would be his top priority to ensure that a share in the jobs was given to local population and investors also provided health and education facilities to local people. He added that professional or technical expertise could be obtained from other areas or foreign countries.

Mr Saigal said that around 16 known foreign companies would be investing in this project with some Pakistan-based firms. "Of the 16 foreign companies, letters of interests have been issued to 12, including Denmark-based Vestas which has established majority of windmills in Holland", he said and added that the other foreign companies included the General Electric of the USA.

"I am trying my level best that project's physical existence should be made possible by the year end and have set a target of ensuring production of 100 megawatts of electricity by 2,015", he said.

He said that the land would be purchased by investors at government rate for which a committee, comprising the officials of the Thatta's civil administration, EPA and AEDB, was being formed.

He said that a team of officials would visit the countries of the investors so that their credentials could be verified and their projects' working witnessed before going into further details of the Gharo project's deal. About quality of drinking water, he said that 30 per cent of water supplied to Sindh cities was untreated because the supplier agencies lacked treatment facilities.

He complained that when he tried to take action against officials of civic bodies as per the environmental laws, influential people intervened to save delinquent officials. However, he made it clear that he would not tolerate such tactics.

The adviser said that lack of data and quality assessment prevented foreign investment in the water sector but four Japanese companies had offered four projects of water and the EPA had also collected samples of water all over Sindh for evolving a data.