ISLAMABAD: The government has approved 24 projects worth Rs184.8 billion, out of which 10 projects of Rs169.6 billion were referred to ECNEC.
Central Development Working Party meeting was held under the chairmanship of Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sartaj Aziz. The meeting was also attended by the senior officials of federal and provincial governments as well as autonomous bodies. The CDWP also approved one position paper with a cost of Rs. 709 million.
The projects presented for approval included energy, transport & communication, water resources, physical planning & housing, science & technology, governance, health and mass media.
In energy sector, CDWP recommended a project on evacuation of power from Suki Kinari, Kohala & Mahl Hydro Power Project in Northern Areas of worth Rs73.6 billion to ECNEC. The main objective of the project is construction of 500kV transmission network to provide interconnection facilities for evacuation of power from the said hydro power plants. Moreover, a project of feasibility study on developing mechanism for tariff based bidding of hydropower projects, review of feasibility studies for hydropower projects through local and foreign experts and capacity building of PPIB employees was approved with a cost of Rs 64.3 million. The project will help enhance the capacity of PPIB.
In transport and communication, CDWP approved 12 projects in transport & communication out of which six were referred to ECNEC. The projects included upgradation/renovation of Bahawalpur, Raiwaind, Gujranwala, Karachi, Peshawar, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Lahore and Rawalpindi railway stations (Rs1.46 billion), replacement of old and obsolete signal gear from Lodhran-Multan-Khanewal-Shahdara Bagh Main line Section of Pakistan Railways (Rs 18.6 billion), improvement & widening of Chitral-Booni-Mastuj-Shandur Road (Rs19.1 Billion), construction/rehabilitation of four bridges (Muzhgole Bridge, Osaik Bridge, Pokel Bridge and repairing of Churan Bridge) with approach road and allied components (Rs544.6 million), construction of Ziarat Mor-Kach-Harnai Road and construction of Harnai Sanjavi Road (Rs10.8 billion), construction of six lane overhead bridge at Imamia colony railway crossing Shahdara (Rs 2.1 billion), purchase of road clearance/earth moving machinery for prompt emergency response in AJK (Rs 500 million), extension/upgradation of Bannu Airport for A-320/B-737 Aircraft Operations (Rs 715 million), improvement of security at Karachi Int’l Airport, Multan Airport and Islamabad Airport (Rs 2.2 billion), land acquisition for Rwp-Kahuta Road (Rs 5.3 billion), and dualization of Rwp-Kahuta road (Rs 10.1 billion). Lastly, construction of northern by pass of Dera Ghazi Khan was recommended to ECNEC (Rs 5.6 billion).
In physical planning & housing, construction of Model Custom House at Gwadar was approved with a cost of Rs 1.5 billion.
In water resource feasibility study, detailed engineering design & preparation of tender documents of Murunj Dam Project was approved with a cost of Rs 371.7 million. Darawat Dam Project was also recommended to ECNEC, which would be completed with a cost of Rs11.8 billion.
In science and technology section, two projects including one position paper was approved with the total cost of Rs 3.3 billion. The position paper tends on subsidy to scholars aboard under culture exchange program with a cost of Rs. 709 million. The project for development of National University of Medical Sciences, Islamabad was also approved with a cost of Rs 2.6 billion.
In governance, federal program under Access to Justice Programme worth Rs6.4 billion was recommended to ECNEC.
In health sector, three projects were approved out of which one was referred to ECNEC. The projects included establishment of a current cGMP complaint sera processing laboratory for capacity enhancement, biological production division, NIH Islamabad worth Rs751.1 million. A project titled establishment of centre for Neuro Sciences at PIMS, Islamabad was referred to ECNEC worth Rs 7.4 billion. In addition, civil works for cancer hospital Islamabad was approved with a cost of Rs 1.99 billion.
Two projects were approved in mass media sector which include installation of 100KW Medium Wave Digital Transmitter at Mirpur for countering cross-border propaganda costing Rs 143.8 million and rehabilitation of medium wave services for Muzaffarabad (AJK) with a cost of Rs. 160.6 million.
