ADB assures financial assistance for desalination plant, other projects in Sindh

KARACHI: Asian Development Bank (ADB) Central West Asian Department (CWRD) Director General (DG) Werner Liepach on Thursday assured Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murtad Ali Shah to provide financial and technical assistance for the Karachi desalination plant as well as multiple other infrastructure projects in the province.

This was announced in a meeting that took place between the Sindh CM and ADB delegation.

The CM on the occasion said that education, water, sanitation, urban transport and improvement of road network are his among his top most priorities for therefore his government may be assisted accordingly.

 “The overall improvement of social sectors is need of hour, therefore we are focusing on it,” he said.

Murad Ali Shah said that his government has conceived a plan to install desalination plant to provide drinking water to the people of this megalopolis city of Karachi. He added a similar water supply and drainage schemes are being planned for other districts of the province also.

It was agreed that the provincial government through Planning and & Development (P&D) Department would provide details of the proposed desalination plants, water and drainage schemes to the P&D.

SINDH PROVINCIAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME:

P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem while briefing the meeting said that under the ADB sponsored Sindh Provincial Improvement Program (SPRIP) of $227.5 million, six roads, 328km in total, have been constructed and their work has almost been completed. The roads were constructed in various cities of Sindh including Badin, TM Khan, Matiari, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Jacobabad, Kandhkot-Kashmore and Larkana.

The chief minister said that in the construction of these six roads, the provincial government has saved an amount of up to Rs38.92 million, and further plans to constrict three other important roads having a cumulative length of 82 km.

A presentation in this regard was given to ADB officials after which they agreed to fund the project in the coming years.

That would include a 32km-long Sehwan Railway crossing at N-55 to Dadu via Tilti upto Dadu-Moro Roa, 22-km long Road from Chambar to Tando Allahyar and 28km-long Road from Jehan Khan (N-65) to Fezu Laro (N-55) via Chak Town of Sukkur-Shirkarpur area.

Meanwhile, several other projects were also discussed in which the ADB would assist Sindh government.

SINDH SECONDARY EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT PROJECT:

The ADB DG said that the bank would support the Sindh Secondary Education Improvement Project (SSEIP) which is worth $150 million, of which the provincial government would only have to pool $15 million.

It has three components, access to quality secondary education, teaching & learning capacity and improvement in the education system.

The chief minister said that he had declared education emergency during his last tenure and after going through the overall education system he found these three interventions, quality education, improving teaching & learning capacity and improvement in the education system are required.

Chairman P&D said that the project has been approved by CDWP and has been sent to ECNEC for approval.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP:

A proposal to fund Public Private Partnerships (PPP) project was made which envisages strengthening provincial government capacity to select and develop and PPP projects and effectively manage PPP project-related fiscal risk.

P&D chairman said that it would be $184.13 million projects in which provincial government share would be $64.9 million. The project has already been cleared by CDWP and is now in progress.

RED LINE BRT PROJECT:

The provincial government asked for ADB’s financial support for the Red Line BRT project after which CWRD DG assigned the task to his team members in the country to collect all relevant documents from the provincial government so that it could be moved for approval.