ISLAMABAD, Jan 3: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) is meeting here on Friday to discuss and approve 35 development projects at an estimated cost of Rs30 billion.

Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry will preside over the meeting. It will be attended by chairmen of Planning and Development Departments of Punjab, Sindh, the NWFP and Balochistan. Additional chief secretary of Planning and Development Department, Azad Jummu and Kashmir government, will also participate

Some of the major development projects likely to be approved by the CDWP included Rs4.9 billion Machine Readable Passports, Machine Readable Visa and Automated Board Control, Rs2.4 billion improvement of Forsenic Science Facilities for Police project, Rs4.4 billion Hydro Electric Project Jagran-1, Rs7.5 billion Steam Turbo Generation of 200MW for Combined Cycle Operation at Kot Addu Unit 11-12, Rs1.9 billion Rehabilitation and Improvement of 124-kilometre Dera Gazi Khan to Mughal Kot Road project and Rs1.4 billion Northern Health Project Phase-2.

The Machine Readable Passport and Machine Readable Visa Project has been sponsored by the ministry of interior to be implemented on Built Operate and Transfer(BOT) basis. The basic objective of the project is to introduce new technology in the field of production, data collection and verification, personalization, data transmission to a repository and issuance of travel documents and its linkage with online computer data base. The new system will reduce human intervention to the minimum level to provide a high degree of reliability.

Officials said that the project, after implementation, would provide with Pakistan the most advanced tools to monitor, evaluate and manage the immigration and travel documents.

Steam Turbo Generators project of Rs7.5 billion had been delayed for several years due to various objections raised earlier by the CDWP and Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec). Officials concerned said that the project was now likely to be approved by CDWP as the sponsoring agency —Wapda— had removed those objections.