ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Wednesday approved a total of seven development projects, including two motorways and as many schemes for restoration of Karachi’s Orangi and Gujjar nullahs, with the total estimated cost of more than Rs410 billion.

The Ecnec meeting, presided over by Finance Minister Dr Miftah Ismail, also decided that the projects fully funded by provinces with no foreign funding would be exempted from consideration by the central development working party (CDWP) and Ecnec at the federal level.

Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, Planning & Development Minister of Balochistan Noor Muhammad Dummar, Finance Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra attended the meeting.

Two projects relating to the Restoration and Revamping of Orangi Nullah at a revised cost of Rs15bn in Orangi Town and the Restoration and Revamping of Gujjar Nullah at a revised cost of Rs14.854bn were approved by Ecnec.

Total seven development projects worth Rs410bn cleared

The two projects are being sponsored by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and will be completed in 21 months.

Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway

The meeting approved the construction of Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway on a Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis with a revised cost of Rs308.194bn. The federal government would share Rs10.3bn including Rs9.5bn as Capital Viability Gap Funding (VGF), Rs300 million as National Highway Authority’s (NHA) establishment charges and Rs500m as contingencies.

The project, to be executed by the NHA, envisages construction of 306-kilometre-long, six-lane-wide, divided fenced motorway between Hyderabad and Sukkur. The approval of the project is subject to fulfilment of all codal formalities and legislation from the National Assembly.

Ecnec also approved construction of a four-lane link highway connecting Lahore-Sialkot Motorway to Narang Mandi and Kartarpur, including Narowal Eastern Bypass at a revised cost of Rs17.38bn.

The revised project envisages rehabilitation, dualisation and construction of 73-km-long four-lane dual carriageway, connecting Kartarpur with Lahore-Sialkot Motorway and Nankana. The project is to be completed in three years.

The meeting also approved the Punjab Urban Lane Systems Enhancement Project (Pulse) at a cost of Rs25.5bn with foreign exchange component (FEC) of Rs1.379bn.

The project is to be executed by Board of Revenue (BoR) through Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA) and Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) to develop cadastral mapping including digital land records of urban, peri-urban and rural areas of entire Punjab. The project will be carried out through 100pc loan by the World Bank in five years.

Ecnec also approved the construction of the northern section of Ring Road (missing link), from Warsak Road to Nasir Bagh Road in Peshawar with a cost of Rs16.489bn. The project is to be fully funded and executed by the KP government.

Water project for Quetta

The meeting approved revised project on construction of Mangi Dam in Balochistan at a cost of Rs13.248bn. The project will be located about 60 kms east of Quetta city on the Khost river.

The federal government will bear only 50pc cost of the approved PC-I and increase in cost due to upgrade of a power supply grid station and transmission line. Any other increase in cost will be borne by the province from its resources. The 61-metre-high concrete gravity dam has a gross reservoir capacity of 36.4 million cubic meters (MCM) and annual release of 13.4MCM.

The main objective of the project is to reduce the existing shortfall in the water demand that is being faced in Quetta. The proposed Mangi dam will enable a supply of 8.1 million gallons per day to Quetta city.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2022