ISLAMABAD: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Tuesday cleared a total of 12 projects with an estimated cost of Rs170.5 billion.

The meeting of the CDWP presided over by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan approved seven projects worth Rs12.23bn and recommended five projects worth Rs158.23bn to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) for approval.

Under the recently revised financial rules, the CDWP has been empowered to itself approve projects costing no more than Rs10bn while the projects of higher estimated costs are approved by Ecnec once the CDWP clears them on technical grounds.

The projects taken up by the CDWP on Thursday related to Energy, Higher Education, Information Technology, Science & Technology, Transport & Communications and Water Resources.

The meeting approved a Rs1.135bn worth of project in the energy sector “Evacuation of Power from 660 MW Lucky Electric Coal Fired Power Plant at Port Qasim” to provide interconnection with the national grid system for transfer of power to upcountry load centres by construction of 500 kV double circuit transmission line.

Two projects related to higher education were presented in the meeting. First project titled “Establishment of National Centre of Industrial Biotechnology for Pilot Manufacturing of Bio-Products Using Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering Technology” worth Rs1.44bn was also approved. The project seeks to set up centre at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi (PAMS-AAUR) main campus, Rawalpindi to provide direct value addition to natural products isolated from plants and those derived from microbial origin.

The second project of Higher Education was “Smart University Transformation through Smart Classrooms Phase-1)” worth Rs2.331bn was also approved by the forum.

A project related to Information Technology namely “Extension of Islamabad Hospital HMIS (Hospital Management Information System) and Networking Facilities to Children Hospital” worth Rs59.732m was also approved by CDWP.

The meeting also cleared two projects related to Science & Technology. These included “Advanced Skills Development through International Scholarships (phase-1) — a part of the Prime Minister Knowledge Economy Task Force Initiatives” worth Rs12.460bn was recommended to Ecnec.

Also, the meeting approved Pak University of Engineering & Emerging Technology worth Rs3.281bn.

Five projects related to Transport & Communication were presented in the meeting. First project namely “Construction of Road from Nagar Sharif to Suntsar (54 km)” worth Rs1.257bn was approved by CDWP. The revised project envisaged construction of 54 km long and 4 meter wide single carriage way with provision of 2 meter wide shoulders from Nagar Sharif to Suntsar in Gwadar District.

The second project “Dualization and Rehabilitation of DG Khan- DI Khan Section (208.19km)” worth Rs53.354bn project was cleared on technical grounds and referred to Ecnec for approval.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2020