ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Monday approved nine projects of different sectors worth over Rs 371 billion.
Caretaker Federal Minister for Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Dr Shamshad Akhtar chaired the meeting of the ECNEC here on Monday.
The meeting was attended by the caretaker Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Sami Saeed, Federal Minister for Communications, Railways and Maritime Affairs Shahid Ashraf Tarar, federal secretaries and other senior officers from federal ministries and provincial departments participated in the meeting. The following projects were considered and decisions were made.
The ECNEC considered and approved Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Food Security Support Project at a total cost of Rs25.098 billion. The project has been conceived to address the climate vulnerabilities, improve the food security and livelihood of rural farm households and address the mid-and long-term needs for institutional capacity enhancement in the most flood-damaged districts of the KP.
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The project is proposed for a tenure of five years and will be implemented in seven districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa viz-a-viz; Upper Dir, Swat, Malakand, Charsadda, Peshawar, Nowshera, and DI Khan.
The ECNEC considered and approved a project titled, “Sindh School Rehabilitation Project under Flood Restoration Program (ADB Emergency Assisted) at a total cost of Rs86.080billion with provincial government share Rs7562.50 million and ADB loan amounting to Rs78,518.00 million.
In Sindh, five districts namely, Dadu, Khairpur Mirs, Larkana, Nausharu Feroze and Qambar Shahdadkot were severely affected by rain/flood. 482 schools were fully damaged, whereas, 1,125 schools were partially damaged. Therefore, 1,607 schools would be rehabilitated through this project.
The ECNEC considered and approved a project of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Education Component: Refugees & Host communities Regional Sub Windows SH Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Human Capital Investment Project (KP-HCIP) at a total cost of Rs32.834 billion.
The project will cover educational infrastructure rehabilitation, reconstruction of 1,165 damaged schools in 13 districts of KP. Official documents revealed that the total cost of Rs32.834 billion ($115 million including $87.90 million as loan and $27.10 million as grant) from the World Bank.
The ECNEC considered and approved a project: “Prime Minister’s Laptop Scheme” implemented through the Higher Education Commission (HEC) at a total cost of Rs16.801.23 billion.
According to the documents, Planning Commission submitted to ECNEC the revised phase-wise quota of merit-based distribution of laptop for the students of Balochistan province from six percent to 18 percent.
The Planning Commission had submitted a summary to the ECNEC which stated that sponsor has provided the merit criteria for laptop distribution along with the cost break-up of a laptop merit criteria and cost break-up of a laptop along with capital cost.
The ECNEC considered and approved a project of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Human Capital Investment Project (KP-HCIP) (health component) at a total cost of Rs24. 224billion.
The project aims to improve availability, utilisation and quality of primary care health services through the provision of essential medicines, family planning commodities, hospital waste management and outsourcing of lab/ pharmaceutical/janitorial services for host communities and refugees.
The ECNEC considered and approved a project on Women Inclusive Finance at a total cost of Rs31.413 billion. The project aims to reduce constraints on Pakistani women in accessing credit; this project provides Credit Line Facility (CLF) so that more money is available for lending for women.
Official documents revealed that the project is funded by a five-year financial intermediary loan and aims to contribute to financial inclusion in Pakistan.
The total cost of the project is US$ 105.5 million (31413.047 million @ 1US$=297.754PKR, average rate in September 2023 from the SBP), US$ 100 million loan supplemented by a grant of US$5.5 million from the Asian Development Fund Thematic Pool, and will be met through PSDP allocations from the financial year 2023-24 onwards.
It is not included in the current five-year plan but is aligned with the Pakistan Vision 2025, National Gender Policy Framework (2022), Small and Medium Enterprises Policy (2021), United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2023-27) for Pakistan.
The ECNEC considered and approved a project of the Ministry of Railways, titled, Thar Coal Railway Connectivity with existing Railway Network including Last Mile Connectivity with Port Qasim at the total rationalized cost of Rs53.726 billion with Local FEC of Rs8,182.550 million, on 50:50 basis ratio between the Federal Government and Government of Sindh.
The ECNEC considered and approved a project of the Ministry of Communications; Government of Pakistan titled Peshawar Northern Bypass Project (PNBP) the total cost of Rs27.051 billion without FEC.
The project envisages construction of 32.20 km, 4-lane bypass with service roads on either side, on the northern side of Peshawar city. The bypass will be constructed along a new alignment passing through agricultural land with allied facilities. Land measuring approximately 3,430 kanal will be acquired for the requirement of the 55m Right of Way (ROW).
The ECNEC considered the Greater Thal Canal Project (Phase-II) at a total cost of Rs38.372 billion. However, it was deferred with direction to the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives and the Ministry of Water to develop an appropriate summary of status of consultation among provinces and implementation of past decisions of the ECNEC on the matter.
The ECNEC considered and approved Sindh Barrage Improvement Project (Phase-II) submitted by the Ministry of Water Resources.
As per project rehabilitation and modernization of Sukkur Barrage and remaining works for rehabilitation and Modernization of Guddu Barrage will take place at a total cost of Rs74.618 billion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023