ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: The government has decided to revitalize the dormant Public Private Infrastructure Fund (PPIF) and to create a new Khushhal Pakistan Fund (KPF) aimed at improving the infrastructure and social indicators.
Informed sources told Dawn on Tuesday that the PPIF would upgrade the poor infrastructure — roads, railways, ports and shipping, aviation, airports, communication network and water sector entities.
The Khushhal Pakistan Fund will initially implement Rs 5 billion Khushhal Pakistan Programme, which would be stretched to 1 per cent of the GDP.
The PPIF, which was created for Independent Power Producers (IPPs) previously, would be revitalized with the help of the international donors particularly the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Both the donors were expected to contribute $800-$1 billion for the infrastructure fund. The issue had been discussed with the officials of the World Bank and the IMF who agreed to extend sizable funds to rehabilitate the weakening infrastructure of the country.
One of the reasons for low foreign investment, the sources said, was the poor infrastructure, which needed to be rehabilitated on priority basis.
The transport sector has direct and indirect linkage with all the important sectors of the economy, which influence economic and social development. It was said that an efficient transport system would contribute to the economic growth by lowering domestic production cost through timely delivery of raw materials in agricultural and manufacturing sector, enhancing economies of scale in the production process, and creating economic opportunities and communication links among people.
The government planned to effectively improve water sector infrastructure as the country possesses the world’s largest irrigation system commonly called as Indus Basin Irrigation system, which commands an area of about 14.3 million hectares (35 million acres) and encompasses the Indus River and its major tributaries. The system includes three large reservoirs (Tarbela, Mangla and Chashma), 32 barrages/headworks/siphons, 12 inter-river links and 45 canal commands extending for about 68,800 km to serve over 140,000 farmers operated watercourses.
“This whole system needs to be improved and rehabilitated to have better water infrastructure with the help of the international donor agencies,” a source said.
He said an allocation of Rs276 billion has been proposed for the water sector under the PSDP, including the federal allocation of Rs218 billion and provincial allocation of Rs58 billion. The federal programme will mainly cater to the on-going projects, which have a through-forward of Rs304 billion. In fact Rs80 billion would still be required for completion of on-going projects in the period beyond 2010.
The ADB had earlier expressed its willingness to provide all the necessary financial and technical assistance to drastically improve the country’s poor infrastructure. The sources said that Pakistan was also seeking ADB’s assistance for undertaking mega water projects including dams and reservoirs to meet the water and power shortages.
