KARACHI, March 8: A delegation of Asian Development Bank, headed by Stephen Sedgwick, on Wednesday met the Executive District Officers of city district government to review the progress of ongoing development projects in Karachi.

Additional Chief Secretary (Planning and Development) Ghulam Sarwar Kherro, presided over the meeting while City Nazim Mustafa Kamal gave a detailed briefing to ADB officials.

The delegation expressed satisfaction on the progress of the projects and stressed on continuation of the work with the same pace in future as well.

The nazim told the delegation that work on mega-projects worth Rs5,122 million was underway in addition to Rs6.5 billion water and sewerage projects funded by the federal government. A plan was also being prepared to install desalination plants at a cost of Rs6.2 billion, he said. Work was underway on provision of infrastructure at a cost of Rs2.9 billion in all the four industrial zones and Rs90 million were being spent on improving water and sewerage system in 18 towns of the city, he added.

The city nazim said that another PC-I was being prepared for Textile City and water supply system worth Rs700 million.

Mustafa Kamal said that an international company JAICA was working on the Master Plan for Karachi Water and Sewerage System at a cost of Rs190 million while an agreement had recently been signed with a Malaysian company for constructing Elevated Expressway from Quaidabad to Jinnah Bridge at a cost of US$225 million. The work on this project has started.

About future projects, the nazim said that they included construction of garbage stations, Malir River Expressway worth Rs2 billion, coastal highway worth Rs4,269 million, Mass Transit I and II as well as circular railway. The financial assistance of US$400 million extended by the World Bank would be spent on mega-projects, he said, and expressed hope that it would bring a remarkable improvement in the city.

Mr Kamal said that a GIS-based Master Plan was being prepared to ease the congestion in the city according to which residential projects would be planned in Gadap and Malir areas.—PPI