ISLAMABAD, Feb 17: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) is meeting here on Wednesday to approve the Reni Canal and distributaries and minors lining projects in Sindh at a cost of Rs28 billion.

Sources told Dawn that four other projects would also be approved, including change in the monitoring mechanism of the madressah reforms pertaining to teaching of formal subjects in the institutions, population welfare services in Azad Jammu and Kashmir from 2003 to 2008, construction of a building for the foreign office and purchase of fire fighting vehicles.

Sources said a mid-year review of the Public Sector Development Programme for 2003-04 would be carried out for diverting funds from the slow projects to the faster ones.

"We would only be offering our recommendations on the issue and the decision will be taken at an NEC meeting presided over by Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali this month," an official said.

The Reni Canal project, proposed by the Water and Power Development Authority, will provide seasonal supply of 5,155 cusecs to 412,400 acres of the Reni track in the Nara region in Sindh for agriculture and lakes.

It will include the construction of the canal and 107 miles of branches, distributaries and minors. The project is expected to be completed by 2007. The lining of water channels will be carried out in the command areas of the Gudu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages.

The Sindh government, sources said, was pressing for the early approval of both the projects. It had contended that water supply was limited and ways and means had to be devised to prevent its wastage at all levels, they said.

It maintained that there were substantial losses on account of evaporation and percolation in the system and about 50 per cent of the supplies from the river were lost before reaching the crops. The wastage needed to be minimized for increasing crop production and reducing water logging and salinity in the province, it said.