August 25, 2007	Saturday	Sha’aban 11, 1428

KARACHI, Aug 24: The government has embarked on a programme of structural public private partnership to accelerate the pace of infrastructure development for achieving sustained economic growth.

This was stated by CEO of Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF), Ministry of Finance, Aijaz Ahmad at a seminar on ‘Draft Public Private Partnership Standardised Contractual Provisions’ here on Friday.

The seminar was organised by the IPFD under the consultative process initiated by the government between the public and private sector stakeholders for finalising a framework for Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

He said that work on several PPP initiatives were already underway, including Lahore Mass Transit project, Islamabad-Rawalpindi Mass Transit project, Environment Friendly Public Transport (CNG buses) Service, Islamabad IT Park, Multipurpose Water Reservoirs, CBR Automation Project, Kalinger Water Supply and Charsadda Solid Waste Management.

Some other projects proposed to be implemented under the PPP modality, include: Karachi Circular Rail, Bus Rapid Transit System Karachi, Intra-City Bus Terminal Facilities Karachi, Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas Road (Dualisation & Tolling), Sindh Coastal Highway (Expansion & Rehabilitation), Karachi Desalination Plant, Rawalpindi Solid Waste Management, Lahore Solid Waste Management, Low Cost Housing Hyderabad, Car Park Garages Karachi etc.

Dr Asad Ali Shah, Member (Infrastructure) Planning Commission, said the government was looking to the private sector’s active participation in the national development effort.