ISLAMABAD: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Tuesday approved 15 projects worth Rs172.1 billion, including seven projects costing Rs162.9bn which were referred to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec).

Major projects included Kacchi Canal Project (worth Rs80.3bn), dualisation of old Bannu road and Indus Highway (Rs48bn), and integration of health services delivery with a special focus on nutrition programme (Rs14bn).

The CDWP meeting, chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal, also approved three position papers to integrate transport infrastructure planning and management unit, improve human development indicators in Pakistan, and set up Chashma Nuclear Power Project.

The Bannu road dualisation project (worth Rs17.9bn) envisages improving two existing sections of the two-lane old road measuring 83 kilometres from Gaandi Chowk to Sarai Naurang (8km) and Domail to Krapa on the Indus Highway, or N-55 (75km). The project is expected to enhance the mobility for the underdeveloped area of district Bannu.

The CDWP also recommended dualisation and improvement of the Indus Highway from Sarai Gambila to Kohat costing Rs30.1bn to Ecnec.

In the agriculture and food sector, the CDWP approved risk-based control of foot-and-mouth diseases in Pakistan; the project’s cost is Rs763 million.

In the higher education sector, the CDWP approved the establishment of Pak-Korea Hi-tech Agriculture Innovation Centre at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, worth Rs3bn, including a foreign exchange component of Rs129m.

The CDWP also approved Rs1.5bn IT Industrial Innovation and Research Centre of Islamia College University in Peshawar 5bn and Rs819m Centre for Mathematical Sciences at Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

An education support project worth Rs1.3bn for Balochistan was also approved. Another education project worth Rs3.5bn for the province has been referred to Ecnec.

In the health sector, the CDWP referred two projects worth Rs21.7bn to Ecnec, including integration of health services delivery with a special focus on maternal, newborn and child health, lady health workers and nutrition programme (worth Rs14bn), and national health programme for family planning and primary health care for Azad Kashmir (Rs7.8bn). The CDWP also approved 26-megawatt Shagharthang Hydropower Project in Skardu district (worth Rs9.1bn).

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2017