ISLAMABAD: Before leaving office, the outgoing government on Wednesday approved another eight development projects involving an estimated cost of about Rs174 billion.

The approvals were given at the last meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) under the PDM government presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, prime minister’s special assistants Tariq Bajwa and Tariq Pasha, a few federal secretaries and bureaucrats from some provincial departments also attended.

Ecnec approved a World Bank-funded project of the Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives titled “Resilient Housing Reconstruction and Restoration in all districts of Balochistan for Rs43.4bn.

The project is to be executed by the Government of Balochistan through Federal Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) and the provincial Project Implementation Unit (PIU) to support communities to reconstruct their houses affected by floods in 2022 in the province.

The entire cost will be borne by the federal government through a World Bank loan and targeted for completion in 65 months i.e. December 2028. An amount of Rs300,000 per housing unit would be provided for the completely damaged house and Rs150,000 for partially (over 50pc) damaged unit.

The committee also approved the Rs26.44bn Punjab Urban Land Systems Enhancement Project project of the Punjab Board of Revenue (BoR). The project is fully financed by the World Bank. The project is to be executed by BoR through Punjab Land Records Authority.

The project completion deadline is 60 months until March 2027 and is expected to develop cadastral mapping including digital land records of urban, peri-urban and rural areas of the entire Punjab.

The meeting also approved a project of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs & Gilgit Baltistan titled “Establishment of Regional Grids in Gilgit-Baltistan Phase-I” with a rationalised scope and cost of Rs9.149bn with foreign exchange component (FEC) of Rs1.679bn. The project will be executed by Water & Power Department, Gilgit-Baltistan in Districts Gilgit, Hunza, and Skardu in GB region.

Ministry of Communication submitted a summary regarding the project “Dualisation of road from Chistan to Chak no 46/3R via Dahrnawala (41.154 km) including two-lane Link Road from Dahrnawala to Chaki 175m (4.859km)” to be executed in District Bahwalnagar of Punjab Province by National Highway Authority and Ministry of Communications. The project was approved by Ecnec at a total cost of Rs8.963bn without FEC on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis between the federal and Punjab governments.

A project submitted by the Ministry of Water Resources, namely the Construction of Awaram Dam (Revised) was also submitted for approval. The project was approved at a cost of Rs23.579bn without FEC. It will be executed in District Awaran of Balochistan by the Irrigation Department, Government of Balochistan. Another project of the Ministry of Water Resources regarding “Construction of Panjgur Dam in District Panjgur, Balochistan” was also approved by the Ecnec at a revised cost of Rs22.341bn without FEC. This project will also be executed by the Irrigation Department, Government of Balochistan in District Panjgur.

A project of the Government of Sindh regarding “Construction/Re-construction of Existing Schools in Sindh affected under Rain/Flood 2022 in Sindh (1800 units)” was also approved at a cost of Rs12.338bn with a 50:50 cost-sharing basis.

Lastly, an already approved Sindh Solar Energy Project with an updated cost of Rs27.418bn was also reconsidered.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2023