The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) held a meeting on Monday in which five projects were revealed worth Rs140 billion including a major infrastructure initiative for the development of a series of roads in south Punjab. The meeting was carried forward by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Muhammad Jehanzeb Khan who approved three projects worth Rs 9.168 billion and recommended two projects with a cost of Rs 130 billion to the Executive Committee of the national economic council (ECNEC) for approval. A project of Strengthening the Existing Capacity of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad worth Rs 450 million was approved for productive response against the Covid-19 pandemic. The CDWP revealed four projects which are related to transport and communication, two of them are approved and the remaining two are recommended to ECNEC for approval.
In the meeting, Punjab Arterial Roads Improvement Programme worth Rs 129.9 billion was carried forward to ECNEC for approval. This project is to be expanded over the various cities in Punjab including Okara, Pakpattan, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Vehari, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Layya, and Sahiwal. Planning and Development Board of Punjab is the executing agency of the project. For this project, the Punjab government will arrange funding of Rs 14.164 billion, and 64.972 would be provided by Asian Development Bank (ADB) while Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank would finance the remaining amount of Rs 50.807 billion.
This project involves the construction of 535 km of a dual carriageway highway between various cities in Punjab and is designed to improve the transportation system through up-gradation and dualization of the highway network. The scope of this project includes the construction of bridges, culverts, retaining walls, drainage work, roadside facilities, and allied works. The CDWP also approved the construction of a road between Sibi-Talli (20km) Kohlu-Rakhni (80km) worth Rs 6.067 billion. The original project was approved during the last fiscal year worth Rs 4 billion.
Now the range of the projects has been improved and accepted at 50:50 cost-sharing between the federal and provincial government. A project Revised PC-1 for Rehabilitation of Karachi port trust (KPT) and Rail Connectivity project (PHASE-1) worth Rs 2.652 billion was approved by the CDWP. The existing track of the critical section of the railway becomes unserviceable. The rails laid are overaged and obsolete type and have outlived its designed life. This Revised project will work for the rehabilitation of the existing track of a critical section of the Pakistan railway from KPT to Karachi Cantt and the provision of a new track for connectivity with Mainline (ML-1).
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