ISLAMABAD 0 The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Friday approved 68 projects worth Rs 170.4 billion having a foreign exchange component (FEC) of Rs 36 billion, of which 35 projects costing Rs 31.6 billion pertain to Balochistan. The meeting of CDWP was held under the chairmanship of Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Nadeemul Haque. The Balochistan chief minister and chief secretary and cabinet members attended the meeting on special invitation along with other representatives from federal and provincial governments.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani said the federal government had decided that there would be no cut in allocation of the development projects for Balochistan in this fiscal year’s Public Sector Development Programme. To a question on Reko Diq, he said the matter was sub-judice, however, he assured that whenever the project would be initiated it would be done in a transparent manner.
Of the 68 projects, 37 projects are of the infrastructure sector worth Rs 107.9 billion, 28 projects relate to the social sector at a cost of Rs 59.5 billion and three projects are of other sectors worth Rs 2.9 billion. The meeting recommended 19 projects, each costing over Rs 1 billion, with an overall cost of Rs 148.4 billion to ECNEC for consideration. In total, 35 projects costing Rs 31.6 billion for Balochistan alone were approved. The 33 projects budgeted in the PSDP with an allocation of Rs 4.5 billion and three projects costing Rs 21 billion will be financed by the provinces with foreign assistance, including Japanese assistance for road construction project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project will be funded by IFAD.
Projects in water sector include 64 emergent flood schemes in Sindh costing Rs 14.0 billion and construction of flood protection schemes in Qilla Saifullah at a cost of Rs 170 million, construction of 100 delay action dams in Balochistan at a cost of Rs 2.47 billion and the extension of Pat Feeder Canal for utilisation of Indus water in Balochistan costing Rs 5.77 billion. To provide fresh water to Thar Coal power projects, Makhi Farash Link Canal Project costing Rs 27 billion was also recommended by the CDWP. Transport and Communications sector projects, included Construction of Expressway on East Bay of Gwadar Port costing Rs 6.3 billion, rehabilitation of NHA network damaged by unprecedented monsoon rains and floods in 2010 at a cost of Rs 26.3 billion, and construction of Rathoa-Haryam Bridge and its approaches across reservoir channel on Mirpur-Islamgarh Road worth Rs 3.7 billion were also recommended by the CDWP for approval. The meeting approved two universities costing over Rs 3 billion to be established at Turbat and Loralai in Balochistan. To promote industrial activities in Balochistan, five projects for establishment of Industrial Estates in Balochistan at a cost of Rs 1 billion were approved. These Industrial Estates are being established at Dera Murad Jamali, Quetta, Bostan and Khuzdar. Another important project of the industrial sector, the establishment of turbines and power plants equipment manufacturing facility at Heavy Mechanical Complex, Taxila, at a cost of Rs 21.5 billion was recommended to ECNEC.
