KARACHI, Oct 7: The first meeting of the Public Private Partnership Policy board, Sindh, to be held on Wednesday at the Chief Minister House is expected to consider light rail train for Karachi.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, who is the chairman of the PPP policy board, will preside over the meeting, which will be attended by members of the board from the public and private sector.

The board is expected to consider 16 pilot projects. Approval will also be sought for holding investors’ conference for meeting provincial infrastructural needs.

In order to attract local and foreign investors and to boost provincial economy, it has been recommended to convene a provincial investment conference so that investors may be attracted to invest in the infrastructure and service sectors.

Among other pilot projects, which are expected to be taken up by the policy board meeting for approval, include dualisation of Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas road, development of recreational resort at Gorakha Hill station and Keerthar National Park.

The board is expected to give approval for the establishment of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed College of Management Sciences at Dadu and establishment of an engineering college at Khairpur.

The light rail train for Karachi is among those pilot projects likely to get the board’s approval. The other projects include sewerage III scheme, and livestock and dairy farming development in the province with the public private partnership assistance.

The additional chief secretary, Sindh, would brief the participants about the progress made towards public private partnership in the province and a presentation will be made by Dr Anand Chiplunkar, a PPP specialist from the Asian Development Bank.

A preliminary meeting of the business community members of the PPP policy board was held on Oct 6, which was attended by ACS finance, special secretary Naheed Shah Durrani, DS Khalid Sheikh along with members from the business community.

Engr M A Jabbar, a business community member on the board told Dawn that the interaction between the public and private sectors will help in developing institutional mechanism.