ISLAMABAD: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Wednesday cleared a total of seven development projects having a total estimated cost of Rs36 billion.

Of them, two larger projects with cumulative estimated cost of Rs25bn were referred to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) for approval. The remaining five smaller projects with total estimated cost of Rs11bn were approved by the CDWP.

Under the recently revised financial rules, the CDWP has been empowered to itself approve projects costing no more than Rs10bn while the projects of higher estimated costs are approved by Ecnec once the CDWP clears them on technical grounds. Before today’s meeting, the CDWP was approving projects of up to Rs3bn.

The meeting of the CDWP was presided over by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan and attended by senior officials from federal and provincial governments. Projects related to energy, industries & commerce, physical planning & housing, transport & communications and education were presented in the meeting.

A project related to physical planning & housing namely “Sewerage system from Larech Colony to Gulshan-e-Ravi Lahore” worth Rs14.146bn was recommended to Ecnec for further approval.

Likewise, the “Operationalisation of Green Line Bus Rapid Transport System Karachi” worth Rs10.956bn was also recommended to Ecnec.

Two projects related to energy sector were presented in the meeting. The CDWP approved the Asian Development Bank funded “500kV Moro Substation” worth Rs7.147bn and a study for setting up of a few nuclear power projects worth Rs1.042bn.

The objective of the Moro project is conversion of 500kV switching station at Moro in Sindh province to meet the growing power requirement of Sukkar Electric Power Company (Sepco) region including 132kV grid station at Kandiaro and Naushahro Feroz.

A project related to Industries and Commerce “Expo Centre Quetta” worth Rs2.5bn was approved in the meeting. The project envisages construction of two exhibition halls each having 45,000 sq ft floor area along with a convention centre and allied facilities having covered area of about 200,000 sq ft over 200 kanal of land in phase-1.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2019