Central Development Working Party (CDWP) has approved three projects at cost of Rs1.04 billion and recommended one position paper of value Rs175 billion to the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) for consideration.

The CDWP met with Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan in the chair at P-Block Secretariat, here on Wednesday. Secretary Planning Zafar Hasan, senior officials from the federal government also participated in the meeting, while representatives from provincial governments participated through video conference.

Three projects related to transport and communications were presented in the meeting.

First project presented by the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, "Establishment of Business Park at Korangi Fisheries Harbour" worth Rs784 million was approved by the CDWP.

The project envisages the development of Business Park to accommodate industrial units, offices and other associated infrastructure and services centered around one primary product or activity.

The planned Business Park will be established on the 320 acres of land available within the KPFHA boundary.

Second project, "Establishment of Cold Storage and Freezing Tunnel at Korangi Fisheries Harbour" worth Rs170.1 million and "Modification of Auction Hall of Korangi Fisheries Harbour" worth Rs94 million were approved by the CDWP.

All the above projects were fully funded under the JICA government.

Diamer-Bhasha Dam project (acquisition of land and resettlement) worth Rs175 billion was considered as position paper referred to the ECNEC.

The CDWP also considered the ML-1 project, and a threadbare discussion took place.

The forum underlined the space for improvement in the proposal and deferred the project till the next meeting.

When contacted, Dr Liaqat Ali Shah, CPEC's project director, told this correspondent that the Ministry of Railways had submitted project cycle (PC-I) of ML-I Railway Project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to the Planning Commission.

He said the Planning Commission discussed the PC-I and gave its comments of the PC-I, and asked the Railways Ministry to reviews its PC-I of ML-I Railway Project. He said the estimated cost of ML-I Railway Project was $9.2 billion, however its financially modalities were being discussed with the Chinese government.

He said the project would be launched in phases.

The CPEC project director said the 10th Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) meeting under the CPEC through video link would be held this month.

However, he said the scheduled time of the meeting was not set as yet.