ISLAMABAD: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Thursday cleared a total of five development projects worth Rs124 billion including a mega mass transit project for Karachi.

The meeting of the CDWP was presided over by Minister for Planning & Reforms Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar and attended by federal and provincial representatives.

The CDWP formally approved a Rs385.135 million project of Ministry of National Health, Services, Regulation & Coordination for Up-gradation of Gastroenterology Department/Replacement of Equipment for advanced Liver and GI diseases, at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad.

The meeting also cleared on technical grounds four mega development projects with a combined estimated cost of Rs123.6bn and recommended them to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for formal approval.

Under the current financial powers, the CDWP can itself approve projects costing no more than Rs3bn while the projects of higher estimated costs are approved by Ecnec once the CDWP clears them on technical grounds.

The CDWP considered a project of the Government of Sindh namely “Karachi Urban Mobility Project (Yellow Line)” worth Rs61.436bn and recommended it to Ecnec for approval.

Minister for Planning told the meeting that the government was committed to development of Karachi and the completion of project will provide travel facilities to the people of the city. He said the project was closely aligned to the Federal Government’s manifesto and objectives with urban development and green growth.

Another important project of Government of Sindh “Karachi Water & Sewerage Services Improvement Project (KWSSIP) Phase-1” worth Rs14.729bn was also recommended to Ecnec for consideration. The project will build the capacity of Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB) to provide better water and sanitation services to the residents of Karachi and to carry out its routine activities of development, operation and management of waste water treatment infrastructure facilities.

Another transport project “Construction of Expressway on East Bay of Gwadar Port (Revised)” worth Rs17.370bn was presented by Ministry of Maritime Affairs which was referred to Ecnec for consideration. The project envisaged construction of 18.981km four lane divided limited access expressway with embankment for 6 lanes integrating Gwadar Port with the Makran Coastal Highway as well as with its Free Zone and future container terminals. The length of off-shore section of Expressway is 4.34km and on-shore section is 14.641km.

The CDWP also recommended to the Ecnec a project of the Govern­ment of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa called “KP Irrigated Agriculture Improvement Project” at an estimated cost of Rs30.048bn. The project aims to improve performance/functionality of the farm level irrigation delivery system and reduce water waste.

The meeting also approved for further processing two position papers on ‘Construction of Delay Action Dams in Balochistan-Package III’ and ‘Lahore Garment City’ worth Rs716.63m.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2019