The federal government is keen to complete 20 water and power projects by December this year before holding general elections, it is learnt. Till August 31 this year, the Planning Commission released Rs 32.9 billion against Rs 360 billion for completion of various projects by the end of this year.
According to the sources, President Asif Ali Zardari had tasked Prime Minister Raja Parvaiz Ashraf to accelerate the pace of work on projects relating to various sectors, urging that the projects should be completed before general elections. The sources said that the PPP and its allied parties were pursuing these projects vigorously as part of their election campaign.
In this regard, the Planning Commission reviewed and prioritised PSDP-2012-13 projects which were near completion and decided to release all allocation for financial year 2012-13 to complete them by December. According to documents obtained by Business Recorder, the federal government wants to complete as many as 20 water and power projects by the end of this year. There are six water projects while 14 of them relate to the power sector.
Water projects include Kacchi Canal, for which Rs 2.4 billion had been allocated in 2012-13, and by June this year, 62 percent of the work had been completed. The remaining work is likely to be completed by December. For Rainee Canal (Ghotki, Sukkur, Khairpur-Sindh), Rs 2 billion had been allocated, where 95 percent of the work had been completed. The allocation for Gomal Zam dam was Rs 1.8 billion, 80 percent of work had been completed. As much as Rs 300 million were allocated for Satpara Dam, Skardu, on which 99 percent of work had been completed.
As much as Rs 75 million was allocated for the construction of flood management structure, and 90% of work was completed while for the Construction of Lower Nara Canal (Sindh), Rs 14 million had been allocated and 90 percent of work on the project had been completed. In power sector, the allocation for Dadu-Khuzdar Transmission System was Rs 928 million: 75% work on the project was reported to be complete.
Nearly Rs 300 million were allocated for 220KV Kassowal-Substation transmission lines and 53 percent of work had been completed. The allocation for Tranche-I projects was Rs 900 million on which 54% of work was completed, Rs 1.6 billion were set aside for Tranche-II projects on which 7% of work was completed, Rs 358 million were set aside for the Rural Electrification Project, Balochistan (Kuwait Fund) on which 80% of work was completed.
As much as Rs 200 million was set aside for the 132KV Nushki-Dalbandin grid and transmission line on which 80% of work was completed, Rs 790 million were allocated for joint Pre-Project Feasibility/Design study of 1,000MW NPP, KCI, on which 4% of work was reported to be completed. The allocation for 4.8-megawatt Battar hydel power project was Rs 224.1 million and 71 percent of work had so far been completed.