Boat engines for 3,291 Gwadar fishermen: Cabinet approves disbursement of Rs823m to GPA

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has approved the disbursement of about Rs823 million to the Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) to purchase boat engines for 3,291 poor fishermen of Gwadar.

The meeting of the federal cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday gave final approval by ratifying the ECC’s decision of providing Rs250,000 per head to 3,291 poor fishermen for the purchase of boat engines.

The prime minister during his visit to Gwadar in June 2022 and after listening to the plight of poor fishermen directed that 2,000 deserving fishermen should be provided engines for fishing boats free of cost.

The selection of beneficiaries was undertaken and a meeting of the DDWP of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs held on 6 June 2022 approved the project for the provision of 2,000 engines to the poor fishermen of Gwadar at a cost of Rs500 million with an implementation period of one year.

Subsequently, a meeting of the federal steering committee on Gwadar initiatives was held in the Prime Minister’s Office on 6th July 2022 under the chairmanship of Secretary Maritime Affairs reviewed and finalise the criteria for the distribution of boat engines among fishermen.

Financial aid for Gwadar fishers only through crossed cheques: govt

As per the PC-I, Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) floated the first, public tender notice on 6th July 2022, second, on 17th August 2022 and third, on 13th October 2022 in national newspapers. Incidentally none of the advertisement; received appropriate response fulfilling the requisite criteria and requirements resultantly all tenders were scrapped.

A progress review meeting of Gwadar Projects was held on 23 November 2022 under the chairmanship of the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives and directed that due to the lukewarm response of OEMs/bidders and the non-availability of engines on-time reported by the Chairman GPA during review, the option of cash transfers to deserving fishermen for the purchase of boat engines to be looked into and sponsors to complete formalities as per procedure envogue on priority.

In view of foregoing and in pursuance of decisions of the progress review meeting on Gwadar Projects held in November 2022 under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, it is proposed that the PC-1 of the subject project may be allowed to be withdrawn and Planning Ministry may surrender the amount of Rs500 million already allocated for the project.

An additional amount of Rs322.750 million may also be provided by the MTh PD&SI from savings of any other projects of PSDP, thereby the total amount of Rs822.750 million may be granted as Technical Supplementary Grant as a grant in aid enabling GPA to disburse the same to 3,291 fishermen with 250,000per head for the purchase of boat engines.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022