KARACHI: Work on four foreign-aided projects under way: Assembly told
KARACHI, Jan 30: Work on four foreign-funded projects in road sector is currently under way in Sindh. Under the projects new roads are being constructed and existing ones are repaired or rehabilitated.
This was stated by the provincial Minister for Services and Woks, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, while responding to a query from Syed Ali Mardan Shah in the question hour during the assembly session on Thursday.
These projects, he said, included road sector development project assisted by the Asian Development Bank and phase I and II of the rural access roads project funded by Japan.
The minister said that under these projects, 164km-long provincial highways and 12,000km rural access roads would be constructed.
He said that a total of US$150 million would be spent on these projects out of which the provincial government would bear 30 per cent of expenditure, the ADB 64 per cent and the OPEC six per cent, he added.
The minister pointed out that these loans, provided under an agreement signed in February last, were soft loans exempted from mark-up for an eight year-period whereas only one per cent mark-up would be charged after that period.
To a supplementary question, the minister informed the House that the projects were at the initial stage. Identification of the schemes for various districts had been finalized, he said and added that Japan-assisted project would be included in next year‘s Annual Development Programme.
To another question, the minister replied that the lending agencies had a criterion for the selection of roads according to which the minimum length of a proposed road should not be less than five kilometres and should benefit maximum number of villages and population, should be feasible to boost economic activities. Priority is given to a road project to be built in poor area and where there existed no other road within five kilometres on either side of plain area or more than two to three kilometres in case of hilly area. The environmental conditions are also considered while selecting a scheme, he said.
Supplementary questions were raised by Munawar Ali Abbasi, Pappu Shah, Dr Sikandar Mandhro and others.
Responding to a questioner, Irfan Gul Magsi, the Senior Minister, Syed Sardar Ahmed told the House that the federal government had constituted a 10-member committee to determine the share of provincial and local governments in development schemes.—PPI
The Minister for Irrigation and Power, Pir Sadruddin Rashidi, refuted the claim that Sindh’s water share was diverted to Punjab during last month.
Replying to a question by the PPP legislator, Ms Nasreen Chandio, he clarified that during the closure of Chashma Barrage, the share of Sindh and Punjab was diverted through Chashma-Jhelum Link for few days and the water received at Guddu Barrage accounted for in share of Sindh coming through Panjnad Barrage or Taunsa Barrage.
Mr Rashdi said no action by Sindh government on diversion of water was required as Sindh had received its share.
To a question by Syed Ali Mardan Shah, the minister replied that an amount of Rs5 million out of the allocated Rs15 million for the year 2002-03 had been released to the Managing Director of Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority as first instalment of desilting work.—PPI
KARACHI, Jan 30: Work on four foreign-funded projects in road sector is currently under way in Sindh. Under the projects new roads are being constructed and existing ones are repaired or rehabilitated.
