Rs 126.4bn Karachi water scheme included: Ecnec approves over Rs448bn projects

ISLAMABAD: A meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) has approved over Rs448 billion projects including Rs126.404 billion Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme Phase-I designed to meet the growing water demand of Karachi.

The ECNEC meeting presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Monday took up and approved four development projects related to water as well as transportation sectors and rural water and sanitation.

The meeting approved, after detail discussion, Punjab Arterial Roads Improvement Programme (PARIP) with projected cost of Rs129.944 billion (US$ 773.20) million, which envisages construction of 535 km of dual carriageway highway sections between various cities in the Punjab province.

The project is sponsored by the government of Punjab. The ECNEC also approved Punjab Rural Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PRSWSSP) at a cost of Rs96.202 billion (USD 553 million) to provide basic civic amenities such as water supply, sanitation and solid waste management in the selected Tehsil of rural areas Punjab.

The meeting was informed that the project would be executed by Punjab Rural Municipal Services Company in 16 Tehsils of Punjab.

The meeting directed to reduce its implementation time and to carry out the project initially as pilot project in some Tehsils and submit its report to the Ecnec for further consideration.

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The ECNEC discussed and approved Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme K-IV, 260 million gallons per day (MGD) Phase-I at a revised cost of 126.404 billion with the objective to meet growing water demand of Karachi by providing dependable and sustainable water transmission system from its more than 100 kms away source of Kinjhar Lake to feed Karachi water supply and distribution network.

The meeting was told that initially, the project was approved with original capacity of 260 MGD in 2014 to be executed by Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, government of Sindh.

Later on, the project was revised and included in Karachi Transportation Plan (KTP) with the same 260 MGD capacity but change of sponsoring and executing agencies from government of Sindh to Ministry of Water Resources and Wapda happened in 2021.

The meeting also approved Kharian-Rawalpindi Motorway project to be executed on built, operate and transfer (BOT) basis under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode at a total cost of 95.810 billion. The project envisages construction of 4-lane access-controlled 117.20 km in length motorway from Kharian to Rawalpindi.

The Ecnec meeting was attended by the Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umer, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood, Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, federal secretaries, and other senior officers from federal as well as provincial governments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022