ISLAMABAD
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved the “Establishment and Operation of Basic Education Community Schools in the Country” project with a rationalised cost of Rs 4,282 million.
The community schools in the project will spread all over the country and the Ministry of Education, Training and Standard in Higher Education will execute the project in 36 months. The project will bring the out of school children to schools and increase the overall literacy rate in the country.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar chaired the meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office on Friday.
The ECNEC approved reconstruction and rehabilitation of 277 flood-damaged school buildings in 10 districts of AJK with a rationalized cost of Rs 3,865 million with IDB share of Rs 3,500 million. The remaining will be the share of GOP (AJK).
The project will be executed through Department of School Education AJK and completed by March 2019. It may be mentioned that the Floods of 2010 badly affected the infrastructure of Pakistan including AJK. In order to reconstruct and rehabilitate the damaged school buildings in AJK, the FM emphasised on timely completion of the project. He said that enhancing access to education is one of the key priorities of the government. The project will also help increase literacy rate of AJK from 67 percent to 95 percent by 2019.
The ECNEC considered and approved eight projects of the Water and Power Ministry for augmentation and extension of 132/11KV transformers/power distribution enhancement investment programme tranche-4 for distribution companies; IESCO (Rs 2061.657 million), FESCO (Rs 1833.842 million), HESCO (Rs 1291.945 million), GEPCO (Rs 1008.318 million), MEPCO (Rs 3678.794 million), LESCO (Rs 4808.214 million), QESCO (Rs 1183.566 million) and PESCO (Rs 2749.737 million).
The projects envisage up-grading/extension of existing grid stations for uninterrupted and sustainable power supply to the consumers. The implementation period for the projects is 2014-16.
The ECNEC approved the project “Construction of Low Cost Housing Units for Earthquake Affectees of District Awaran and District Kech, Balochistan” with a modified cost of Rs 4 billion. The federal government will share 50 percent cost (grant) and the remaining 50 percent will be provided by the Balochistan government. Rs 2 billion have already been provided by the federal government and the Government of Balochistan. The project aims at award of cash grants of Rs 220,000 to each house-owner for reconstruction of low cost two-room house; besides provision of solar electrification units.
The project also aims at provision and installation of 18 community solar pumps for provision of water. The project will be implemented through “Owner Driven Reconstruction Strategy”. It may be mentioned that the PM directed for reconstruction of 16,000 houses in Awaran and Kech districts which were hit by an earthquake of 6.8 Richter scale in September 2013. The period of completion will be three years.
The ECNEC also approved Sindh Water Sector Improvement Project (Phase-I) with a cost of Rs 30,353 million which includes World Bank (IDA credit) of Rs 28,840 million. The project will be implemented in the command area of Ghotki feeder, Nara, Fuleli and Akram Wah canals. The main objective of the project is to improve the effectiveness and operational efficiency of water distribution by ensuring the safety of the canal system and delivering due share of water to the farmers at the tail end.
The ECNEC considered a report of the Planning Division for already approved Jamshoro 2x600MW coal project. The ECNEC was informed that due to rationalization and strengthening of Pak rupee, there has been a reduction of Rs 77.54 billion in the cost of the project. ECNEC in its meeting held on February 12 approved the project subject to rationalisation and revision of cost due to strengthening of rupee.