A meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) has approved around Rs 215 billion projects for higher education, communication, power and social sectors.
The ECNEC meeting chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh considered and approved seven projects put up by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives. The ECNEC considered and approved the Southern Punjab Poverty Alleviation Project (SPPAP)-IFAD assisted, Revised-III, at the total cost of Rs15.52 billion with Rs 7.5 billion as the FEC (foreign exchange component).
The meeting was informed that the Punjab government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) are the financers of the project that aims to contribute to reduction of poverty in the Southern Punjab region through improving the living, boosting agricultural production and provision of infrastructure - water supply, irrigation, access roads, sanitation and drainage facilities - to the population. The project is expected to be complete by 2023. It was briefed to the ECNEC that the main cause of the revision in the cost of the project was the change in the exchange rate.
The ECNEC also gave approval to "Higher Education Development in Pakistan" at the total cost of Rs 12.08 billion with foreign exchange component (FEC) of Rs 7.72 billion to be provided by World Bank IDA Financing.
The project has five components - nurturing academic excellence in strategic sectors, supporting decentralized higher education institutes for improved teaching and learning, equipping students and higher education institutions with modern technology as well as higher education management information system and data driven services and technical assistance. The project is expected to raise the overall quality of higher education in the country with the use of IT services.
The "Pakistan Multi-Mission Communication Satellite System (PakSat-MMI)" project for the establishment of the geostationary communication satellite and its ground control stations located inside Pakistan, co-hosted with the PakSat-IR ground control equipment also got approval by ECNEC at the total cost of Rs 39.7 billion.
As much as 15 percent of the cost of the project would be finance through federal PSDP and 85 percent shall be Chinese concessional loan. The project aims to help increase mobile density, teledensity, broadband internet density, employment generation and quick to establish means of communication over a large geographical area stretching beyond national borders. The project shall complete in 44 months.
The ECNEC approved the Tarbela 4th Extension Hydropower project Revised PC-I at the total cost of Rs 122.9 billion. The objective of the project is the expansion of the present capacity of Tarbela Dam Hydro Power Project from 3478 MW to 4888 MW (addition of 1410 MW) by installation of three units of 470 MW on the existing irrigation tunnel 4. World Bank IBRD/IDA shall be providing 90 percent of the financing of the project (US$692 million) and 10 percent of the financing shall be done by Wapda's own resources. The project is located at Swabi and Haripur districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Renewable Energy Development Sector Investment Program (3rd revised) also got approval by ECNEC at the total cost of Rs12.8 billion with Rs 8.84 billion as FEC.
The meeting was informed that the project would be sponsored by the government of Punjab with the financial assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB). The main objective of the Renewable Energy Development Sector Investment Program is construction of hydel projects, ie, Marala (7.64 MW), Chianwali (5.38 MW), Deg-Outfall (4.04 MW) and Pakpattan (2.82 MW) at Canal Falls of Punjab. The project also envisaged capacity building of Energy Department, Punjab, and PC-II for additional feasibility studies/construction of hydro power stations in Punjab.
The "Evacuation of Power from Wind power projects at Jhimpir and Gharo Wind Clusters" Revised PC-I at the total cost of Rs13.40 billion was also approved by ECNEC. The ECNEC was informed that the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) will be the executing agency. The main objective of the project is evacuation of 1256 MW power from the Wind Power Plants (WPPs)installed at Jhimpir and Gharo wind clusters for supply of power to respective load centers of DISCO, ie, HESCO through transmission network of NTDC system. The project shall be financed by KfW (27 million Euros) and NTDC's own resources. The expected time for the completion of the project is 33 months.
The report of the committee constituted by ECNEC (on its meeting of 15-7-2019) for the determination of tariff for PC-I based public Sector Power Projects was also presented to the meeting. According to the submission of the report, it was decided that "in future all power projects (irrespective of fuel technology) funded through PSDP should comply with NEPRA tariff regime by applying to NEPRA for tariff determination at feasibility, EPC and COD stages, including Balakot Hydropower project. Public sector projects must have assured funding."
The chair directed the Ministry of Planning to inform the forum on the status of all PSDP funded projects in the next meeting.
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