ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be an attempt to woo voters in the coming elections, the coalition government has decided to allocate over 70 per cent of the development budget for projects to be carried out by the ministry of water and power, Atomic Energy Commission, Pakistan Railways, and the planning and development divisions.

The focus will be on early completion of ongoing projects, sources said. New projects will be launched, especially small dams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, though only a small portion of the amount will be earmarked in the budget for such projects.

The sources said that the remaining 36 ministries and divisions would have to rely only on 30 per cent of the development budget.

An official said that major portion of the amount would likely be spent on projects designed to help legislators in their election campaign.

The government is likely to earmark Rs164.257 billion for the power sector in the 2012-13 budget – almost half of the total development sector allocations. Of the amount, Rs44.128 billion will be for the water sector: Rs42.666 billion to be spent on ongoing projects and the rest on new plans.

The new water projects include nine small and medium dams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two small dams in Rawalpindi. An amount of Rs800 million will be spent on rehabilitation projects in flood-affected areas of Sindh.

Over Rs78 billion has been earmarked for ongoing hydroelectric power projects. The major breakdown of this amount will be as under: Rs22 billion for construction of Diamer Bhasha Dam, Rs27.218 billion for Neelum Jhelum project, Rs6.277 billion for Tarbela Dam’s fourth extension and Rs6.842 billion for Golan Gol project in Chitral.

The Atomic Energy Commission has been allocated Rs36.915 billion, including Rs31.562 billion for Chashma nuclear power project (C3 and C4). Of the remaining amount, Rs752 million will be spent on new projects and the rest on 24 ongoing schemes.

For the railways’ division, Rs20.867 billion has been allocated – Rs14.682 billion for ongoing projects and Rs6.185 billion for new plans, mostly related to rehabilitation and maintenance of the tracks.

The government has allocated Rs25.811 billion for the planning and development division. The amount will be spent on ongoing projects, especially those related to population and health, although both subjects have been devolved to provinces.