QUETTA: The Balochistan government claimed on Tuesday that 95 per cent work on 2,250 uplift projects being executed under the provincial Annual Development Plan (2015-16) and 140 under the federal PSDP had been completed.

Addressing a press conference, provincial Minister for Planning and Development Dr Hamid Khan Achakzai warned that departmental action would be taken against officials in case development funds lapsed.

Additional Chief Secretary (Planning and Development) Nasibullah Bazai was also present.

The minister said that Rs54.5 billion provincial ADP had 2,250 schemes, including 940 ongoing and 1,310 new ones. He said that Rs19.5bn was allocated for ongoing schemes and Rs31.57bn for new projects.

“About 95 per cent funds for ongoing schemes have been released within seven months,” he said, adding that 97pc PC-1 of new uplift schemes had been approved.

He said that 102 federal schemes were being executed by the federal agencies and 38 by the provincial departments.

“About 60pc of Rs44 billion funds earmarked for federal PSDP schemes for the province have been authorised and remaining 40pc would be authorised soon,” he said.

The additional chief secretary said 98pc progress in implementation of federal projects had been achieved.

He said Rs440 million was allocated for 88 schemes of Millennium Development Goals.

“Around 87 PC-1 schemes were prepared and progress has been made on 50,” he said.

He said that multi-donors had increased financial assistance for foreign funded projects of Balochistan from $70m to $90m which would be part of the next provincial budget.

He said that with the cooperation of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, several water projects worth billions of rupees had been completed. Under the Prime Minister Package for Quetta, Rs5bn were allocated which would be utilised for execution of projects of flyovers, bypasses and under-passes.

He said requirement of water for Quetta would be met with supply from Pat Feeder Canal and dams.

He said that Prime Minister’s National Health Insurance Prog­ramme had been initiated in four districts of Balochistan on an experimental basis, adding that medical expenses of poor patients amounting to Rs250,000 and Rs50,000 would be jointly borne by the federal and provincial governments.

He said that facilities were being provided to 900 state-run schools. “Three new medical colleges, as well as three new universities, seven cadet colleges and five residential colleges were being constructed while 800 primary schools have been upgraded to middle and 400 middle schools to high schools,” he said

He said that in the next provincial budget, Balochistan would have 5,000 check dams and 6,00 live Karez in 32 districts.

Referring to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), he said that under an agreement signed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Chinese president, work on several uplift projects pertaining to CPEC in Balochistan was going on.

“Work on Zhob-Mughal Kot N-50 and Qila Saifullah Road N-70, Gwadar-Hoshab and Hoshab-Surab N-85 was under way,” he said, adding that these road projects would be completed by 2018.

He said that work had been kicked off on Rs14.06bn project of East Bay Express from Gwadar to Karachi along the coast, adding that Rs4.70bn were allocated in PSDP 2015-16. He said that Rs0.138bn had been allocated for road projects including Gwadar-Karachi, Gwadar-Basima and Basima-Jacobabad-Khuzdar, adding that Rs1.01bn was being released in this regard.

He said the Balochistan government would introduce tax and duty amnesty schemes for local and international investors to invest in Gwadar and a project of 300MW coal-run power plant to meet electricity demand in Gwadar was under consideration.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2016