KARACHI: The Sindh development total outlay for the fiscal year 2011-12 is expected to be Rs151 billion, with allocations of around Rs111 billion for provincial government schemes, Rs20 billion for district government projects and Rs20 billion for foreign-funded road infrastructure schemes on the right bank of the Indus river, it was reliably learnt on Sunday.

The proposed allocation of Rs111 billion for provincial government schemes was over 44 per cent higher than outgoing fiscal year's revised annual development plan of Rs77 billion and Rs4 billion less than the year's original allocation of Rs115 billion, sources said.

The sources added that the new ADP would include Rs10 billion special packages for Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Benazirabad and Larkana, with a major share of Rs4.3 billion for the port city.

However, they said, the number of schemes being proposed for 2011-12 was less than 1,766 projects of the closing fiscal year's ADP. It was because 400 of them had already been completed and over 300 projects, which hit snags over decades due to their small allocations in annual budgets, had been dropped, they said.

They said funds would be allocated in the new ADP to the ongoing schemes that were near completion so that the projects benefited the people without delay. The proposed ADP would have around 250 schemes, which were up to 75 per cent completed, the sources added.

Education, health get priority

The sources told Dawn that over 500 new schemes were being included in the ADP, with preference being given to the education, health, livestock, agriculture, transport and communication, industry and coal and energy sectors.

A 69.56 per cent increase in the funds for the education sector had been proposed in the new ADP, the sources said, adding that Rs4,560.5 million was allocated to the education sector in the closing fiscal year.

In the health sector, they said, a 69.23 per cent increase was suggested in the allocation that was around Rs4,095 million in the closing fiscal year.

Similarly, the sources said that funds in the new ADP for the livestock sector were likely to increase from the current ADP by 57.08 per cent, the agriculture sector by 53.85 per cent, transport and communication by 30.18 per cent, industries by 18.68 per cent, and coal and energy sectors by 11.5 per cent.The current year's allocations for the livestock, agriculture, transport and communication, industries, coal and energy sectors were around Rs1,068 million, Rs2,113.15 million, Rs8,450 million, Rs842.58 million, and Rs3,326.73 million, respectively.

In other departments allocations equal to the revised allocations for 2010-11 plus 10 per cent was proposed, the sources said.

Special packages

An increase of 15.36 per cent was proposed in the special packages for five major cities, the sources said.

They added that in the new ADP, Karachi was expected to get Rs4.3 billion, Hyderabad Rs1 billion, Benazirabad and Larkana Rs2 billion each and Sukkur was likely to receive Rs0.7 billion as special packages.