KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday discussed $143.9 million development portfolio, including $35.1m for Karachi, with the World Bank country director and urged the bank to support the provincial government to undertake reconstruction of rain-affected infrastructure of the city.

The meeting was organised on video link.

The World Bank new country director Najy Benhassine along with his team joined the meeting from Islamabad. The chief minister was assisted by chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem and finance secretary Hassan Naqvi.

The chief minister said that in August in a single day Karachi received over 250 millimetres rainfall which destroyed road network in the city.

Therefore, his government has decided to reconstruct the damaged road network and line all the storm-water drains by removing encroachments that have emerged along the embankments of drains.

Urges bank to help rebuild the metropolis

Mr Shah also said he visited four districts Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar and Badin, which had also been hit by heavy downpour.

He added that the standing crops had been destroyed and rainwater washed away a large number of homes. “We have shifted the affected people to a tent city set up in Umerkot,” he said.

The World Bank country chief assured the chief minister that he would work out a plan to finance reconstruction of the infrastructure of Karachi, including construction of storm-water drains.

The country director advised the chief minister to engage his P&D chairman with the WB team for submission of proposal along with other necessary documents.

Official sources said that the WB-funded projects worth $608.8m are in progress, including Sindh Agriculture Growth project of $56m.

They said that this project had been completed by 81 per cent and $93.8m Sindh Agriculture Productivity Enhancement Project had achieved 51pc completion.

The sources said that Sindh Public Sector Management Reforms project of $47.4m had been completed.

They said that Sindh Enhancing Response to Reduce Stunting project of $20m had achieved 32pc progress and the Sindh Resilience Project of $71.2m had been completed by 71pc.

The sources said that $259.1m Sindh Water Sector Improvement Project Phase-I had achieved 99pc completion and the Sindh Barrages Improvement Project of $56.4m had achieved 18pc completion, Sindh Multi-Sectoral Action Nutrition of $4m had achieved 80pc completion, and Sindh Solar Energy Project (SSEP) of $1m was at the initial stage.

Four WB projects in Karachi

At present four WB-funded projects are in progress in the city.

They are Karachi Neighbourhood Project of $25.3m and it has achieved 29pc progress.

Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project of $1.1m has been started recently and its progress is three per cent.

Karachi Mobility project of $4m is also a new project and has been started recently.

Competitive and Liveable City of Karachi Project (CLICK) of $4.8m is a new project and has two per cent progress.

The meeting also discussed progress of each project.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2020