ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved on Wednesday 16 projects with a total estimated cost of Rs132 billion, most of them for transmission of electricity from power plants to the distribution system.

An Ecnec meeting presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and attended by ministers and senior representatives from provincial governments constituted a committee to ascertain the reasons behind an inordinate delay in the construction of the Kachhi Canal that was scheduled to be completed in March this year at an estimated cost of Rs28bn. The cost has now increased to Rs60bn and the project is likely to take another two years.

Of the approved projects, 12 relate to the energy sector, amounting to Rs96.48bn, including the Rs7.51bn 31.17MW Koto hydropower project.

Three projects of Rs41.39bn were approved for Sindh, two costing Rs9.81bn for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, seven of Rs43.6bn for Punjab along with a Rs11.8bn project for the province’s southern region and a Rs8.73bn scheme for Balochistan. A Rs22.58bn project was approved for Azad Jammu and Kashmir and one of Rs2.63bn for Islamabad.

In order to streamline the procedure of approval of projects, the finance minister asked the planning and development department to present projects approved by the Central Development Working Party within seven days.

The Planning Commission was asked to prepare an integrated plan for transmission lines needed for the electricity planned to be generated by 6,600MW thermal plants in Gadani, 1,200MW from Jamshoro, 2,017MW Karachi coastal plants and other scheduled projects. The meeting was informed that 90 per cent work on the D.G. Khan-Loralai and 70pc on Dadu-Khuzdar lines had been completed.

Work on a grid station in Dera Ghazi Khan will be completed by April next year.

The committee deferred discussion on the Kachhi Canal project’s first phase and constituted a committee headed by the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and comprising the planning secretary, Balochistan chief secretary, Water and Power Authority chairman, finance adviser and Punjab irrigation secretary to look into the causes of delay and suggest a way forward so that work on it can be expedited. It decided that development projects fully funded by the provinces should be fast tracked.

The projects approved by the committee include the third 500kv AES-Jamshoro-Moro-R.Y. Khan and 500kv Moro-Dadu transmission lines, rehabilitation of Jamshoro thermal power station, transmission scheme for power from Neelum-Jhelum, Karot, and Azad Pattan hydropower projects. It also approved 132kv new substations, conversion of 66kv substations to 132kv and associated transmission lines and augmentation sub-projects of the Multan, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Peshawar, Hyderabad and Lahore power companies.

Projects for laying 132kv double-circuit transmission lines for the Quetta Electric Supply Company and interconnection of Chashma 3 and C4 nuclear power plants were also approved.