PESHAWAR, March 17: NWFP's two foreign-funded mega projects, pertaining to development of infrastructure and improvement of rural water supply and sanitation facilities , are awaiting approval by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.

Official sources told Dawn the rural water supply and sanitation project (RWSSP), estimated to cost Rs1.1 billion and the multi-sectoral foreign-funded project involving an amount of about Rs3 billion, were the two schemes that awaited a nod from Ecnec after bseing forwarded by the provincial government some time ago.

While the RWSSP would be funded by the Department for International Development, UK, the community infrastructure project would be financed by the World Bank.

The sources said that PC-1 of both the projects was forwarded a few months ago to the federal government for Ecnec's approval, which was mandatory for a project worth over one billion rupees.

"Unless the two projects are approved by Ecnec, the provincial government could not initiate them, though loan details with foreign donors have been finalized," said a development planner.

Non-approval of the community infrastructure development project's PC-1 by Ecnec has been described as an irritant by the provincial government in its documents.

According to the document, the project's details had been forwarded for Ecnec approval on Jan 21 and it was likely to come under discussion in its coming meetings.

Same was the case with the RWSSP which was awaiting approval for the last couple of months, said the sources. The RWSSP was approved by the provincial government in 1998 at a cost of Rs740 million. However, the project could not be launched after the donor agency,DFID, withdrew its financial support after Pakistan conducted nuclear tests and later because of the military takeover.

The sources said when the donor agency again showed its interest to finance the RWSSP, the provincial authorities revised its PC-1 to update its cost by adjusting price differential occurred during the last four years - since the project's PC-1 was first approved.

Under the revised PC-1, the cost of the project has been estimated at Rs1.1 billion, showing an increase of about Rs330 million in comparison with the estimated cost fixed in 1998.

A total of 1,800 small schemes pertaining to the water supply and sanitation sector would be executed in all the 61 towns across the Frontier province. Similarly, scores of infrastructure development schemes would also be executed under the community infrastructure project's phase-II which has already been approved by the provincial development working party and the central development working party.

Out of the total estimated cost of Rs3.1 billion, a sum of Rs2.1 billion would be extended as loan by the World Bank for the execution of the infrastructure development project.

The remaining amount would jointly be raised by the provincial government and community organizations as counter-part funding to execute the multi-sectoral project under which apart from improving water supply and sanitation, construction of streets and roads, and schemes of solid-waste disposal would also be executed in all the 61 towns of the province.