December 18, 2003	Thursday	Shawwal 23, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: Federal Minister for Environment Maj Tahir Iqbal (retired) on Wednesday said Rs555.732 million had been allocated for 19 development projects in environment and forestry sectors for the year 2003-04.

In a written reply to a question raised by Maulana Rahat Hussain, the minister told the Senate that Rs167.185 million had been allocated for 13 projects in the environment sector and Rs388.547 million in the forestry sector. He said eight projects had already been launched by the ministry.

Giving details of the ongoing projects, Mr Iqbal said Rs3.727 million would be spent during the year 2003-04 on the establishment of Ozone Cell in Islamabad to implement Montreal Protocol. He said Rs0.587 million had already been spent on the project funded by the United Nations Development Programme.

He said Rs10 million would be spent on a project, called National Awareness Campaign on Energy Efficiency and Environment Protection, during the current financial year, out of which Rs0.184 million had already been utilized. The project commenced on January 6, this year, and would be completed in 2008.

The minister said 21 tune-up centres, out of a total of 30, had been established in the country under the Fuel Efficiency in Road Transport Sector Project. The remaining nine will be set up by December 31. He said Rs1.1 million, out of Rs13.909 million allocated for the project, had been spent in the current financial year. Moreover, he said, a total of 1,567 mechanics and 778 workshop owners had been given special training under the same project.

Mr Iqbal said the PC-1 of the Preparation of National Land Use Plan was under revision process to provide methodology, scope and purpose of the project. The project will be completed by April 2006 and Rs5 million would be spent on it during the current financial year. Similarly, the PC-1 of the Hospital Waste Management in Major Cities project was also under consideration and Rs2.154 million would be spent on the project this year.

The PC-1 is under revision in consultation with the Health Services Academy to ensure better environment for the community. The project will be completed in three years in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

He said the PC-1 of another project, called Establishment of Environmental Monitoring System, was also under consideration. The project, he said, would provide 17 fixed and mobile air monitoring stations and 11 water monitoring stations in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Peshawar and Quetta.

The project has an allocation of Rs1.089 billion of which the Japanese government will provide Rs1 billion as grant-in-aid. The project will be completed in two years in one phase.

The environment minister said Rs1.89 million would be spent on the project of Establishment of National Green Library and Documentation Centre in Islamabad.

The Senate was told that the government would spend Rs7 million on Mass Awareness and Education project, under which people would be educated about environment issues through electronic and print media.

He said the Protected Areas Management Project was being launched in the NWFP, Northern Areas, AJK and Islamabad with the assistance of the World Bank.

Another new project, called Capacity Strengthening of Environment Protection Agencies, is being initiated in the provincial headquarters and Islamabad at a cost of Rs445 million.