ISLAMABAD: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) approved three development projects at the cost of Rs12.6 billion and referred one project valuing Rs58.82 billion to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) for final approval.
The CDWP met with Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan in the chair at P-Block Secretariat on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by the additional secretary of Planning Commission, the secretary Ministry of Water Resources, the secretary Ministry of Health, members Planning Commission, and other key stakeholders.
The CDWP cleared the World Bank’s funded project Punjab Resilient and Inclusive Agriculture Transformation (PRIAT) at a total cost of Rs58.815 billion and recommended to the Ecnec for final approval.
The project will be implemented throughout Punjab for a tenure of five years. The Phase-II of the project comprises four major components which include community-driven improvement of water conveyance and application, promotion of climate-smart high-value production, regenerative agriculture, crop diversification, agriculture value addition and inclusive access to market, monitoring, learning and contingent emergency response components.
The CDWP approved the establishment of the National Institute of Heart Diseases (NIHD) at a cost of Rs7.869 billion. The center will be a state-of-the-art preventive research and development center for cardiovascular disease (CVD).
It will introduce advanced modalities of community-based preventive research and corresponding development of services/products aimed at reducing the disease burden in the society and therefore, cost-effective treatment of CVDs. The project will set forth a paradigm shift from therapeutics to prevention, thus, reduction in the disease burden of CVDs in the society within the overall domain of non-communicable diseases.
The meeting also approved the Up-gradation of Nuclear Institute of Medicine and Radiotherapy (NIMRA), Jamshoro at a total cost of Rs1,223.330 million. The NIMRA is the first oncology and third nuclear medicine institute of Pakistan, established in 1965 aimed to provide cancer-related healthcare facilities to the residents of District Jamshoro and its surrounding areas.
The NIMRA is providing diagnostic services (for various benign and malignant diseases) and treatment facilities (to the patients, suffering from the deadly disease of cancer) to a population of approximately 18.5 million from more than 14 districts for more than 55 years, especially from interior Sindh, including Thatta, Badin, Tharparkar, Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Mirpurkhas and frontier areas of Balochistan with an area of 88,942 square km. The institute is equipped with one linear accelerator unit, two Cobolt-60 units, a conventional simulator, a single head gamma camera, a dual-head gamma camera, one Doppler ultrasound unit, one conventional mammography and an X-Ray unit.
The CDWP also approved the construction of Torawari Dam in district Hangu, KP at the original cost of Rs3.49 billion. Torawari Dam is a small dam designed to conserve storm run-off of Saroobi Algada for irrigation supplies to 7,000 acres of land. Currently, agriculture is practiced on a limited area i.e. 750 acre irrigated through civil channel.
The construction of Torawari Dam irrigation will be done on a larger area of 7,000 acres. The dam will meet the irrigation needs of the command area. The construction of Torawari Dam; socioeconomic conditions of the people in the project area would be improved by achieving the maximum benefits from irrigated agriculture and drinking water facility.
The project envisages achieving the following objectives which include the conservation of available flood flows in the Nullah up to a storage capacity of 7,369 acre-feet (gross) and 6,323 acres feet live which will facilitate utilization of average annual flow 14,000 AF for irrigated agriculture.
The deputy chairman Planning Commission concluded that due to fiscal constraints and huge throw forward, the PSDP is being reviewed and rationalization is in process hence provincial nature projects are being shifted to respective governments. He further added that new projects will be included in the PSDP subject to the availability of funds. He, therefore, requested the provincial members to create space in Annual Development Programmes (ADPs).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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