President General Pervez Musharraf has decided to take special interest in the mega infrastructure projects and has asked the economic ministries to apprise him at least once a week about the pace of development.
The chief executive secretariat is said to have issued instructions to main economic ministries as well as the Planning Commission to keep informing the president about development activities even beyond October’s general elections.
The Commission has been directed to formulate comprehensive progress report on public sector development programme (PSDP) projects and other mega infrastructure projects. The third quarterly report (January- March 2001-02) has been finalised by the Commission recently and forwarded to the chief executive secretariat.
The report covers 18 development projects on water resources and 10 projects on power sector which include Raising of Mangla Dam, Extension of RBOD project, Gomal Zam Dam project, Mirani Dam Project, Thal Flood Water Canal, Left Bank Outfall Drainage Stage-1, Chashma Right Bank Canal, National Drainage Programme, Fordwah Eastern Sadiqia Phase-1, SCARP Gojra Khewra Phase 2, Upper Rechna Remaining Deg Drainage Project, Khanpur Dam (safety Works), Management and Rehabilitation of Saline and Waterlogged Soils, River Training/Flood Protection, Works in Northern Areas, Flood Management of Murri Bughti Hill, Torrents in Balochistan, Ground Water Recharge of Pishin, Quetta, Mastung and Mangocher Valleys and Munda Dam Multi Purpose Project Feasibility Study. And in the power sector, Rehabilitation of Warsak Hydro Power Project, Ghazi Barotha Hydro Power, Secondary Transmission and Grids, Distribution of Power, Transmission Arrangements for Power Dispersal, Construction Rehabilitation and Augmentation, Village Electrification Programme, Basha Dam Project(P-11) and Bunji Hydro Power Project(P-11) have been considered very significant projects..
Similarly, there are 48 development projects of the ministry of communications and railways which also included Rehabilitation of 102 DE Locomotives, procurement of 30 locomotives, procurement/manufacturing of 69 locomotives and procurement/ manufacturing of 175 Locos New Design Passenger Coaches (Revised), Makran Coastal Highway, Pindin Bhattian-Fisalabad Motorway, Lyari Expressway project, Gwadar Deep See Water Port and Gwadar Fish Harbour-cum-Mini Port. There are also 5 development projects of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, including detailed exploration of uranium, nuclear- minerals survey, Karachi Institute of Radiology and Nuclear, National Institute for Bio-Tech, Genetic Engineering and Institute of Nuclear Medicine, Oncology, and Radiotherephy Abbotabad.
The president was also informed about the details of these projects. For example he was told that raising of Mangla Dam project envisages regaining the reservoir storage lost to sedimentation, making provision for future loss of capacity and conserving additional water which is dumped as flood discharge. The estimated cost of the project is Rs53 billion and Rs100 million has been released, out of which 17 million have so far utilised during July-March 2002. The Gomal Zam Dam project costing Rs 12.8 billion to be completed by June 2007 envisages construction of roller compacted concrete dam with gross storage of 1.14 MAF, spillway, 17.4 MW power house, barrage and 63 Km long main canal of 848 cusecs capacity and development of 163,086 acres of irrigated agricultural land. It has been reported by the sponsors of the project to the chief executive secretariat that Rs 99 million have been spent upto 31st March 2002. The Mirani Dam project costing Rs 5.8 billion will have construction of earthfill dam with gross storage of 0.322 MAF on Dasht river, 48 km from Turbat town, spillway intake structure, 25 miles long main canal of 377 cusecs capacity with command area of 33,200 acres. Rs 32 million have been utilised upto 31,3,2002 and the project is scheduled to be completed by June 2006.
The Thal Flood Canal project costing Rs 30.4 billion is located in Khusab, Bhakkar, Layyah and Jhang districts of Punjab and envisages construction of main canal with a capacity of 8500 cusecs, 23 miles main canal, 231 miles of branch canals and 615 miles of distributaries to irrigate 1.534 million areas. The officials of the CE secretariat were informed that by July-March 2001-02, Rs 47 million have been utilised and the project is scheduled to complete by June 2008.
About the LBOD-Stage-1 project, the CE secretariat was informed that the original project was approved by ECNEC on September 8, 1984 at a cost of Rs 8.5 billion. The project has been delayed resulting in cost over-run. The third revision of the project was approved by ECNEC on April 28, 2002 at a cost of Rs 33.4 billion to be completed by December 2003. The project is located in Nawabshah, Sanghar, Mirpur Khas and Badin districts of Sindh and envisages irrigation development (including land drainage) of about 1.28 million acres of cultivable land and progressive increase in cropping intensity from 86 per cent to 120 per cent. An amount of Rs 21.5 billion have been spent on this project upto 30th June 2001. PSDP allocation for the last financial year was Rs 1.5 billion, out of which Rs 1 billion has been spent upto 31st March 2002.
The National Drainage Programme, the CE secretariat was informed, was approved by ECNEC on May 5, 1997 at cost of Rs 31.4 billion for its completion by June 2004. The president had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of minister for food and agriculture to “reformulate” the project for remaining three years by including high priority sub-projects in consultation with the provinces. The committee has finalised the reformulation of the programme and the expected cost of the project is Rs 18 billion against the original cost of Rs 31.4 billion.
