KARACHI, Aug 3: The Provincial Programme Steering Committee of National Drainage Programme (NDP) met here on Thursday under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Secretary, Fazlur Rehman and reviewed the progress in respect of Rs 856 million NDP in Sindh as directed by Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz.

The project director of SIDA informed the meeting that out of Rs856 million worth projects, contracts for projects costing Rs200 million have been awarded while work on the award of the remaining projects will start within a fortnight.

It was decided that the provincial coordinator, Brig (Retd) Abdul Huq, provincial secretary irrigation Shuja Ahmed Junejo and project director Sindh Irrigation Development Authority (SIDA) would look after the project implementation services on the basis of Area Water Board Management and mechanised monitoring system will be introduced.

The meeting decided that the secretary of irrigation will ensure implementation of projects costing Rs300 million and provide their lists to the provincial coordinator of the programme for their authentication at higher level.

It was decided that the next meeting of the committee will be held next month and in the meantime Additional chief secretary development Ghulam Sarwar Khehro will convene a review meeting whose proceedings will be duly considered at the steering committee meeting.

In the meeting, secretary of social welfare, Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, described registration of 1,500 women under gender reforms in Sindh a good omen.

The chief secretary called for a report within a week about Rs856 million projects and asserted that all the projects be completed by Dec 30, 2008.

The meeting was attended, among others, by Secretaries of Finance and Implementation.—APP