Central Development Working Party (CDWP) meeting held here on Thursday approved 29 development projects involving expenditures of Rs 46.4 billion to improve the lot of life and step up pace of progress in the country.
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Muhammad Akram Sheikh chaired the meeting which was participated by the senior members of the Commission, Spokesman of the Planning Commission Muhammad Asif Sheikh told the newsmen at a briefing.
He said, "as many as 31 development schemes were put up for discussion of which 29 were approved while only two were deferred due to lack of necessary technical information."
The cost of Rs 46.4 billion included Rs 4.5 billion foreign funding for carrying out the developmental schemes. Elaborating the nature of schemes, the spokesman said 11 schemes with estimated cost of Rs 23 billion have been approved on all Pakistan basis, which relate to infrastructure, 16 to social sector and 2 are miscellaneous.
He added that six projects costing Rs 6.6 billion belong to Punjab, two projects having cost of Rs 250 million belong to Sindh, three projects costing Rs 1.1 billion belong to the NWFP and two projects involving cost of Rs 15.9 billion are in Balochistan.
In addition, the CDWP also approved one scheme for Fata, three schemes for the Northern Areas and one for Azad Jammu and Kashmir, he added. CDWP also gave approval of construction of Surab-Basima-Nag-Panjgur-Hoshab Road (454-km) with estimated cost of Rs 14 billion and construction of Sabakzai Dam project with cost of Rs 1.6 billion in Balochistan.
A project of "Community Infrastructure and Services Programme -Earthquake Additional Financing" costing Rs 2.4 billion was also approved by the CDWP meeting for Azad Jammu and Kashmir.