The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) would meet on August 15 and 16, respectively, to discuss and approve funding for more than 40 projects. According to sources, most of the projects relate to energy, water, agriculture and Communication sectors and would be discussed in the forthcoming meetings of the CDWP and Ecnec to be held at Planning Commission of Pakistan.
Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafiz Sheikh would chair the Ecnec meeting while Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Nadeemul Haq would chair the CDWP meeting. The sources said that Ecnec is likely to approve more than 35 projects worth over Rs 300 billion, including eight of energy sector, one of agriculture, two housing and physical planning, one education, one industry, 10 transport and communication projects along with 12 water sector projects.
It would be the first meeting of Ecnec after election of new Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf subsequent to the disqualification of Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani. The sources said it is expected that multi-billion-rupee projects, including Tarbela-4 Extension Hydropower and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) projects, would be approved in the meeting.
Approval of the Tarbela-4 Extension Hydropower Project PC-1 is also on the agenda of the Ecnec meeting and an allocation of Rs 83.6 billion is expected to be made for this project. This project would be completed with the World Bank's assistance amounting to $840 million. The financing will include $400 million from the International Development Agency, an affiliate of the World Bank, and the total cost of the project has been estimated at $914 million.
The World Bank has already termed the project a 'low-risk, high-reward operation' aimed at providing about 4,000 GWh annually of low-cost and low-carbon power. The project will facilitate sustainable expansion in the country's electricity generation capacity with the installation of a 1,410-megawatt hydropower plant on an existing dam with already constructed tunnel, thus keeping the cost to a minimum and doing away with the social and environmental challenges often associated with the large dams.
The Ecnec is also likely to give approval for the much-awaited KCR project costing Rs 140 billion. The Sindh government will arrange funding for the project. The project is expected to kick off in 2012-13 while its completion date is May-June 2017. Total cost of the project is estimated at $1.558 billion while 93.5 percent funding would be provided by Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), and the remaining would be arranged by the Sindh government.