ISLAMABAD
With the Sword of Damocles hanging over the head of the government, on Wednesday, it rushed through multi-billion rupees worth seven mega projects through the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) – an unprecedented second meeting in the first month, July, of the new financial year – chaired by the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
An official source said that majority of the mega projects were related to development priorities of the ruling elite in Punjab and were rushed through before a negative fallout from the impending Supreme Court decision.
ECNEC approved the Punjab Tourism for Economic Growth Project. The project aims at promotion of religious and domestic tourism by providing infrastructure facilities like wide access roads, tourism facilitation, provision of rest areas and other public convenience facilities along with providing training to tourism related persons in various cities of Punjab. These include Lahore, Gujranwala, Taxila, Nankana, Sheikhupura, Narowal, Bahawalpur, Chakwal, Mithan Kot. The total cost of the project is Rs 5 – 8 billion.
The CAREC Corridor Development Investment Program was discussed and approved by ECNEC at a cost of Rs 21 billion. The project aims at dualisation and rehabilitation of 208 KMs of three road sections on the N-55 in the provinces of Sindh (Petaro to Sehwan and Ratodero to Shikarpur-dualization work) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Darra Adam Khel to Peshawar-Rehabilitation Work).
The dualisation and improvement of Sohawa-Chakwal Road project also received ECNEC’s nod of approval. The project which will cost Rs 7.9 billion envisages improvement of 66.405 Km long existing road to a width of 7.3 meters (2-lanes carriage way) and construction of additional 7.3 meters wide road (2-lanes carriageway) to make it dual carriageway beside provision of allied facilities and structures.
After consideration, ECNEC approved the construction of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Bridge over River Indus (Districts of Rahim Yar Khan and Rajanpur) with guide banks linking N-5 with N-55 including approach road at a cost of Rs 9304.160 million.
The project regarding the extension of Right Bank Outfall Drain from Sehwan to Sea, (RBOD-II), districts Jamshoro and Thatta, Sindh was also approved by ECNEC at a cost of Rs 61.9 billion.
ECNEC discussed and approved the Lower Indus Right Bank Irrigation and Drainage Project at a cost of Rs 17.5 billion. The RBOD-i project is part of the master plan with the aim to disposing of effluents from the right bank of Sukkur and Guddu Barrage commands in Sindh.
ECNEC also approved the project of Balochistan Effluent Disposal into RBOD-III (Location: Nasirabad, Jaffarabad, Balochistan and Jacobabad, Kambir, Shahdad Kot, Sindh) at a cost of Rs 10.8 billion. The project aims at providing disposal facilities for waterlogged areas in Sindh and Balochistan to increase agricultural production.
