The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the project on the Construction of the Hyderabad–Sukkur Motorway on a Built Operate Transfer (BOT) basis with a revised cost of Rs. 308,194 million during a recent meeting, chaired by the Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Mr. Miftah Ismail.
The Federal Government will provide Rs. 10.3 billion from which Rs. 9,500 million are Capital VGF, Rs. 300 million National Highway Authority (NHA) establishment charges and Rs. 500 million contingencies.
The project is to be executed by NHA and envisages construction of 306 Km long, 06 –lanes wide, divided fenced between Hyderabad and Sukkur. The approval of the project is subject to fulfillment of all codal formalities and approval of legislation from the National Assembly.
ECNEC also considered and approved the construction of the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway (LSM) link Highway (04-Lane) connecting LSM to Narang Mandi and Kartarpur Narowal including Narowal Eastern Bypass at a revised rationalized cost of Rs. 17,379.949 million. The revised project envisages rehabilitation, dualization and construction of a 73- Kms long 04-lane dual carriageway, connecting Kartarpur with Lahore- Sialkot Motorway and Nankana. The project is to be completed in three years.
ECNEC also discussed and approved the Punjab Urban Lane Systems Enhancement Project (PULSE) at a cost of Rs. 25,500 million with an FEC of Rs. 1,378.756 million. The project is to be executed by the Board of Revenue (BoR) through Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA) and Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) to develop cadastral mapping including digital land records of urban, peri-urban and rural areas of entire Punjab. The project will be carried out through a 100 percent loan by the World Bank in 60 months period.
ECNEC also approved the project on the construction of the Northern section of the ring road (Missing Link), from Warsak road to Nasir Bagh road with a cost of Rs. 16,489.198 million and fully funded and executed by the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The project envisages the construction of 6 lanes with a total length of 8.7 km to be completed in three years. The ECNEC further observed that projects fully funded by provinces with no foreign funding may be exempted from consideration by CDWP and ECNEC.
ECNEC discussed and approved a revised project for the construction of Mangi Dam in Baluchistan at a cost of Rs. 13,247.893 million located about 60 km east of Quetta city on the Khost river.
The Federal Government will bear only 50 percent cost of the original approved PC-I and an increase in cost due to the up-gradation of the power supply grid station & transmission line. Any other increase in cost will be borne by the province from its resources. The 61 m high concrete gravity dam has a gross reservoir capacity of 36.4 MCM and an annual release of 13.4 MCM. The main objective of the project is to reduce the existing shortfall in the water demand that is being faced by Quetta city. The proposed Mangi dam will enable a supply of 8.1 mg to Quetta city.
ECNEC also approved two projects in Karachi city, one “Restoration and revamping of Orangi Nullah” at a revised cost of Rs. 15,007.25 million in Orangi Town, Karachi West district and the other “Restoration and revamping of Gujjar Nullah” at a revised cost of Rs. 14,854.40 million in Karachi Central district respectively. Projects are being sponsored by NDMA and are to be completed in 21 months.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar, Planning & Development Minister of Baluchistan Mr. Noor Muhammad Dummar, Finance Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mr. Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra, Federal Secretaries and other senior officers from Federal as well as provincial participated in the meeting.
