Ecnec approves 39 projects worth Rs 124.5 billion: nine schemes for Balochistan
MUSHTAQ GHUMMAN
ISLAMABAD (February 26 2005): The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec), which met here with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in chair here on Friday, has approved 39 schemes/projects worth Rs 124.5 billion, of which 33 schemes are new while 6 are those which were revised due to some reasons. After the meeting, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Dr Akram Sheikh and Dr Ashfaque Hassan Khan told the journalists that Rs 98.5 billion would be spent on 33 new schemes while Rs 26 billion have been allocated for 6 revised schemes.
They said that the Ecnec approved 9 projects for Balochistan costing Rs 33.9 billion, of which Rs 15 billion would be spent on new schemes.
Akram said that extra digging of Gwadar port was underway to allow ships of 50,000 tons, rather than 35,000 tons. The project cost has increased by Rs 1.5 billion from Rs 14.5 billion to Rs 16 billion.
The government has allocated Rs 2 billion for education sector of Balochistan, of which Rs 715 million would be spent on girls primary education project phase-III assisted by WFP. According to the scheme, Rs 2,000 would be given to each girl student to encourage her to get education.
One of the projects has been approved to train manpower for improvement of infrastructure for agriculture and livestock sectors with the cost of Rs 614 million.
For good governance 4 projects have been approved, of which 3 projects are new while one was revised. The cost of three new projects has been estimated at Rs 19.2 billion. According to agenda, Rs 5.5 billion would be spent on conversion of 'B' areas into 'A' areas in 25 revenue districts of Balochistan. The other project was raising the strength of Balochistan Constabulary from 6,000 to 10,000.
The Ecnec approved a project for ERP software to be given to the Ministry of Defence at a cost of Rs 374 million. The project had been submitted by Defence Ministry.
In Physical planning, two projects have been approved with the cost of Rs 3.97 billion, of which one project was related to gravity flow water supply scheme at Abbotabad, while second was regarding improvement in water supply in Faisalabad.
In Transportation and Communication Sector, Ecnec approved 9 project worth 50.64 billion.
The projects are improvement of National Highway N-50, Kuchlac to Zhob (305.358 Km) realignment of National Highway N-65, between Jacobabad and Dera Allahyar Town, new bridge over River Chenab at Shershah on N-70, NWFP road development sector and sub-regional connectivity project provincial component rehabilitation and Improvement of Track on Pakistan Railways (7th, 8th and first two years of the 9th plan period), purchase/installation/maintenance of TC Scan RMG-2004 Cargo Scanning System.
Dr Akram said that Rs 3.5 billion would be spent on improvement of National Highways (Kuchlac to Zhob) while Rs 11 billion have been earmarked for its rehabilitation. This rehabilitation would be to improve connectivity with Afghanistan because trade between the two countries reached $1 billion.
In Water sector, the meeting approved 3 projects of Rs 18.53 billion which include repair of Sukkur barrage of Rs 887 million, Kurum Tangi dam of Rs 17.2 billion and Bolan dam of Rs 436 million.
Dr Ashfaque said that Kurram Tangi dam would have the storage capacity of 0.92 million acre-feet and would irrigate 361880 acres land. He said that the said dam would have installed capacity of generating 63 MW of electricity.
Sheikh said that from 1950 to 2000, 40,000 big dams were constructed across the world and 800,000 small dams were constructed, but countries like Pakistan need to pick the pace for constructing maximum dams to save water.
He said Ecnec also has given the anticipatory approval for initiating Rs 1.5 billion water scheme in Haripur city. He said that the meting also approved Rs 5.2 billion for BMR (Balancing, Modernisation, Replacement) of Pakistan Security Printing Corporation (PSPC) for printing of quality notes.
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