The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved nine projects, worth over Rs361.5 billion, related to water reservoirs, health, hydropower, and infrastructure. Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin virtually chaired the ECNEC meeting on Wednesday.
While discussing the projects, Tarin directed the Planning Commission to prioritize projects that are strategic in nature or can be completed in a shorter period of time to save the exchequer from cost overruns and unnecessary delays in the completion of projects.
The meeting approved the Gomal Zam Multipurpose Project (2nd Revised PC-I) at the total cost of Rs25,928 million. The forum also granted the ex-post facto approval of the expenditures and financial closure of the project by relaxing the direction/ decision of the earlier meeting of ECNEC on 28-8-2013.
The project is located on the Gomal River in South Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The main objective of the project is to harness floodwater and provide assured irrigation water supply of 848 cusecs to irrigate 191,139 acres of land including 28,053 acres of additional land which falls under the Waran Canal System and to generate 17.4 MW of electricity.
The ECNEC also approved the Covid-19 response and other natural calamities control programme (Sindh component) at the total cost of Rs20,822.046 million without any foreign exchange component. The project will be completed on equally shared financing basis by the government of Sindh and the federal government through PSDP. It is expected to be completed by the end of the year 2023.
The ECNEC also gave approval to the 30 MW hydropower project Ghowari (2nd revised) at the total cost of Rs16,399.760 million. The project is located in district Ghanche of Gilgit-Baltistan. The project is expected to be completed in 4 years.
The 20 MW hydropower project Hazel, Gilgit, was also approved by ECNEC at the revised PC-I cost of Rs12,921.662 million. The project will be executed by the Water and Power Department, Gilgit Baltistan.
The Rainee Canal project (phase-1: 110-km), revised PC-I, was approved by ECNEC at the total cost of Rs20,533.836 million. WAPDA is responsible for the execution of the project which will irrigate 412,400 acres in phase-I at a design discharge of 5,500 cusecs in districts of Kashmore, Ghotki, Sukkur and Khairpur.
The construction of Hoshab–Awaran–Khuzdar section of M-8 project (section 2, Awaran-Naal, length, 168-km) was also approved by ECNEC at the rationalized cost of Rs32,244.82 million. The National Highway Authority will be responsible for executing the project. The project is expected to complete in 42 months.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Roads Rehabilitation Project under the PKHA portfolio was also approved by ECNEC at the revised PC-I cost of Rs28,155.972 million. The revised PC-I of the project envisages rehabilitation of 274-km of the existing provincial highway network of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as compared to the original scope of 214 Km. It is expected that the project will be completed by 2023.
The feasibility and dualization of Mardan-Swabi Road was also approved by ECNEC at the revised PC-I cost of Rs13,024.42 million. The construction of Hyderabad-Sukkur (306-km), 06 –Lane divided, fenced motorway on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis, was also approved by ECNEC at the revised PC-I cost of Rs191,471.074 million. The project is expected to be completed in 30 months.
The ECNEC also considered the summary for procurement of 600 Flat Container Bogie Wagons and forwarded the proposal to the Public-Private Partnership Board to develop a transaction structure on PPP basis.
