ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) chaired by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Thursday approved 53 projects, costing over Rs 478 billion, including the foreign exchange component of Rs 172 billion.
The meeting was attended by Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for Water & Power, Dr Asim Hussain, Federal Minister for Petroleum & Natural Resources, Federal Minister for Privatisation, Federal Minister for Production, Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister of State for Finance, Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs and Dr Nadeem-ul-Haque, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission.
Provincial Minister for Finance Sindh, Federal Secretaries and representatives from Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab, KPK, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir, and representatives of sponsoring agencies also attended the meeting. The ECNEC approved 15 foreign-funded projects of Rs 165.5 billion, including the foreign exchange component of Rs 117 billion, seven flood rehabilitation projects worth Rs 64.5 billion with the foreign exchange component of Rs 28 billion and 31 projects including transport and communications, water and power, health education, industries and commerce.
The approved projects include Rs 2,091.4 million including Rs 34.0 million FEC for feasibility study, detailed engineering design and preparation of tender documents for Bunji (Revised). As many as 22 projects of transport and communication sector are approved comprising Construction of Northern Bypass from Qasim Bela to Shershah Road Multan Bypass including Grade Separated Elevated bridge over railway line 7 N-70 (length 12.229 km-Phase-III).
Construction of 2-Lane Bridge over River Indus at Khushal Garh, District Kohat, Rehabilitation of NGHA highways Network damaged due to unprecedented Monsoon rain and Floods, 2010. Gwadar Deep Water Port Project-Phase-I (2nd Revised). Installation of Ship-Lift, Transfer System, associated machinery and Equipment to provide Docking and repair facilities to Surface Ships, Submarines and Commercial Vessels (Revised).
Construction of Northern Bypass from Bosan road to Qasim Bela Multan Including approach road from Northern Bypass to Multan Airport via Jameelabad Chowk Multan (length 16.05 km Phase-II). Two projects of health sector worth Rs 26,983million including Rs 14,195 million FEC comprising Medical Equipment and Ambulances for DHQ Hospitals in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Expended Programme on Immunisation (EPI) (Revised).
Other important approved projects are Up-Gradation and Additional Works of Expo Centre, Lahore. Establishment of Turbines & Power Plants Equipment Manufacturing Facility at Heavy Mechanical Complex, Taxila, Kala Dhaka Area Development Project (Revised). Umbrella PC-I for Sindh flood Emergency Reconstruction Project for Bunds and Canals (2010), 76 Nos emergent Flood Protection Schemes, Restoration of Canals/ Structures Damages. Restoration of Drains/ structure Damages.
Secretary Planning and Development Division, Sohail Ahmed, briefed about the need for rationalising the portfolio in line with resource availability. He also emphasised the need for a balance between new and ongoing projects, and the optimisation of available resources. The Finance Minister, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, emphasised the need for improving the monitoring and evaluation of projects to ensure transparency and best utilisation of national resources. -PR