ISLAMABAD: The Cen­­tral Development Working Party (CDWP) on Tuesday cleared six projects with an estimated cost of Rs151.32 billion.

A meeting of the CDWP, presided over by Planning and Development Minis­ter Ahsan Iqbal, requested the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) to formally approve two projects worth Rs140.129bn, and itself approved a total of four projects worth Rs11.2bn.

In the CDWP meeting, four development projects related to the higher education sector were presented and all of them were approved.

These include Develop­ment of Infrastructure at Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Science Phase-II worth Rs1.85bn; establishment of National Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (new) worth Rs2.772bn; establishment of National Centre for Manufacturing (new) worth Rs4.29bn; and improvement of Academic Facilities at University of Karachi worth Rs2.292bn.

A project related to tourism sector — IDA-assisted (revised) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Integrated Tourism Development Project — worth Rs27.304bn was referred to Ecnec for approval.

The project is proposed to be financed through World Bank loan.

It aims development of tourism in KP for economic growth, employment and revenue generation, progress of local communities and poverty reduction through construction of roads, tourism allied infrastructure,

visitor facilities, marketing, skills development, institutional and regulatory reforms and creating enabling environment for private sector operations.

A project related to the transport and communications sector — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rural Accessibility (revised) — worth Rs112.826bn was also referred to Ecnec for approval. The project is proposed to be financed through funding from World Bank (93.81pc) and the KP government (6.19pc).

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2025