Rs 75 billion less payment from Centre impedes work on Sindh's projects: minister

Sindh government is facing difficulties to carry out its uplift projects because federal government Rs 75 billion less than allocated share during current financial year, according to Provincial Minister for Planning and Development Saeed Ghani.
He expressed these view, speaking at a press conference at Sindh secretariat along with the provincial information minister Nasir Hussain Shah and officials of planning and development department officials. He lamented that shortage of funds made it difficult for Sindh Government to complete uplift projects on time.
"Sindh government is holding Sindh Development Forum on Wednesday. Provincial departments, private partners and foreign donor agencies will participate," Ghani said, adding that they would discuss and lay down recommendations for the better utilization of provincial and foreign funds and better cooperation among the working groups or departments.
He said planning and development department had initiated a Union council based poverty alleviation programme which had helped in improving the standard of living of people in those areas. He said a neighbourhood improvement programme with the assistance of World Bank is also in the process to be initiated in Karachi. Listing the government projects that are under construction and are likely to be completed soon, Saeed Ghani said that Karachi-Thatta Dual carriage way, Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas road, Ghotki-Kandhkot bridge, Malir Expressway, Islamkot airport and several other projects are heading for completion.
He said from 2008 onwards, around 13,625 kilometre road network was laid down by the provincial government that included 7340 kilometre new roads and 6177 kilometres of repaired roads. He said 1597 schemes of roads were included in provincial government's development plans from 2008 of which 1390 are completed while the remaining are in completion process.
He said 22 out of 41 schemes of current fiscal year are completed and the remaining would be completed by July 2018. He said they are maintaining a better quality of work for laying down road networks and on unsatisfactory report from monitoring and evaluation cell of the department, road project is halted and funds are stopped.
"An additional amount of Rs 10 billion is being disbursed on development schemes in Karachi and their basic aim is to complete the ongoing schemes rather than launching new schemes every year," the minister said.