PESHAWAR: The federal planning, development and reform ministry has dropped all 45 projects proposed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for inclusion in the next Public Sector Development Programme.

The PSDP is flagship development scheme of the federal government, which provides budgetary resources for development projects in the country.

Officials in the provincial planning and development department told Dawn on Friday that during the last three months, they sent proposals regarding 45 development projects for inclusion in the PSDP 2016-17.

Two major road projects related to CPEC among 45 proposals rejected by federal planning ministry

“All those projects have been dropped from the proposed PSDP, which we have received from the Planning Commission,” an official said, accusing the federal government of making false commitments on the scheme funding. He claimed the department had prepared cost estimates and other relevant details of the projects in line with the Planning Commission format and that the proposed projects also corresponded to the Vision 2025.

The official said the proposed projects were meant to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, too.

He said the department had received a copy of the proposed PSDP a day before the Annual Plan Coordination Committee meeting, which, to the utter disappointment of the relevant officials, didn’t carry a single project out of the 45 proposed ones.

“On the top of it, the federal government has also excluded at least two major road projects related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor from the list,” he said.

The official insisted the provincial and federal committees on the CPEC project had agreed in a meeting earlier this month to include all those projects in the next PSDP.

He said one road project was about the construction of an artery to connect Kohat with the main CPEC route via Jhand, while the other was about the widening of the Indus Highway to four lanes from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan.

The official said the centre and KP had signed a memorandum of understanding in February to settle several contentious issues, including one about the joint funding of the much-delayed Chashma Right Bank Canal.

He said under the MoU, the centre had to allocate around Rs16 billion for the vital project but the proposed PSDP had earmarked a meagre amount of Rs100 million for it.

“The CRBC’s estimated cost is around Rs121 billion and Rs100 million is even less than the project’s mobilisation advance payment,” he said.

The official said two ongoing projects had been reflected as new in the proposed PSDP.

“One of those projects was about the construction of 10 small dams in Mansehra district for which Rs50 million have allocated this year. It was approved by the Central Development Working Party in December 2015, so it could not be declared new,” he said.

The official said the CRBC had been reflected in the PSDP for the last five years albeit with nominal allocations.

“The project is going nowhere with this current allocations,” he said.

The details available with Dawn show the KP government had proposed the inclusion of 10 projects of energy sector valuing Rs410.445 billion in the PSDP. The ‘installed capacity’ of these projects is around 1,585 megawatts.

Also, there were seven irrigation schemes, two drinking water projects and a scheme about the establishment of six industrial zones.

The proposed schemes also included 14 about the Peshawar High Court and five of the agriculture, livestock and cooperative sector.

When contacted, finance minister Muzafar Said insisted the federal government had promised to including the Kohat-Jhand route in the CPEC, expanding Indus Highway and increasing funding for the CRBC.

He said the federal government had asked the provincial government to prioritise proposed projects for inclusion in the PSDP.

“We’ll have another meeting with federal authorities in few days. We’re hopeful about a positive development on the matter,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2016