Expressing serious reservations over low budgetary allocations for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, especially Western route, a parliamentary panel on Tuesday urged the government to increase the funding. The Senate Standing Committee on Planning Development and Reforms which met here with Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani in the chair also asked the details of total Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) releases in the fiscal year 2018-19.
The panel jointly recommended the government to increase allocation of funds for Western Route of the CPEC to Rs 20 billion under the PSDP 2019-20. Senator Usman Khan Kakar said that the estimated cost of DI Khan to Zhob Section, (N-50 having a length of 210 kilometres) was Rs 76.486 billion but this year only Rs 1.00 billion have been allocated for this road which is nothing. Similarly, he said that the estimated cost of Zhob to Kuchlak road is Rs 63.8 billion; however, this year an amount of Rs 9.4 billion has been allocated for this project which is quite meagre.
"Therefore, it is proposed that allocations for these projects should be increased to Rs 20 billion each," he said. Senator Kulsoom Perveen and Usman Kakar also asked the government to allocate significant funds under the Green Pakistan drive for Balochistan. The officials of the Planning Commission said that the Ministry of Climate Change as yet has not formulated the PC-1 of the Green Pakistan Project and therefore no significant funding has been allocated in the current budget for the project under which the government has set a target of planting 10 billion trees over the next four years.
The senators said that it is surprising that the government as yet has not made any development on the flagship project of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led federal government. Kulsoom Perveen said that for construction of two-lane highway from Basima to Khuzdar, the allocation should be enhanced from proposed Rs 2 billion for the year 2019-20 to Rs 5 billion, besides enhancing allocation of Rs 1 billion to Rs 5 billion for the construction of Black Top Road and Yakmach-Kharan Road. Senator Lieutenant General Syed Salah-Ud-Din Tirmzi (retd) said the Mansehra-Naran Kalkhad road is an important strategic road linking Gilgit-Baltistan with the rest of the country. He said that during the summer, entire traffic from Gilgit-Baltistan uses this road.
The Suki Kinari Hydropower Project, an important project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is also located on this road. He said that keeping in view the importance of this road, it is requested that Rs 2 billion be allocated for rehabilitation and repair of this road.