The Central Development Working Party on Tuesday prioritized health sector by approving five health projects worth Rs 22.7 billion.
The meeting was chaired by Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal and was attended by senior officers of the provincial governments and ministries concerned.
Overall, the CDWP approved seven projects worth Rs 36 billion, including four projects costing Rs 30 billion, which were referred to the executive committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
In health sector, the CDWP referred Sindh Immunization Support Programme (SISP) worth Rs 8 billion, expanded programme on immunization Khyber Pukhtunkhwa worth Rs 6.6 billion with FEC Rs 1.4 billion, expanded programme on immunization Balochistan of worth Rs 7.3 billion with FEC Rs 2.8 billion to ECNEC.
All the three immunization projects, Sindh, KPK and Balochistan, aim to prevent children from 9 diseases including childhood tuberculosis , poliomyelitis , diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis-B, haemophilus influenza , measles and pneumonia .
The meeting approved establishment of unit for shredding, sterilization and disposal of medical waste of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Islamabad with cost of Rs 199 million in principal and directed to rationalize the scope of the project.
It also approved establishment of children hospital at Bhawalpur (Phase1) with the cost Rs 519 million. Under phase 1 of this project, 235-bed hospitals will be established which will help reduce the current load of children per bed in the Bahawalpur division.
The CDWP approved 5 MGD reverse Osmosis sea water plant for Gwadar city of Rs 5 billion .The project aims to meet the future demand of 14.0 MGD by 2020.
It also approved 7th STG (secondary transmission and grid stations) project (GEPC) of worth Rs 8.5 billion with FEC Rs 1.3 billion. The project aims to provide adequate facilities for reliable and stable supply of electrical power to meet the growing demand of domestic, commercial, industrial and agricultural customers of GEPCO.
The CDWP also referred three position papers to the ECNEC including extension of right bank outfall drain from Sehwan to sea (RBOD-2) with cost Rs 61.9 billion, Balochistan effluent disposal into RBOD of Rs 10.8 billion and lower Indus right bank irrigation and drainage project (LIRBP) stage-1 of Rs 17.5 billion.