CDWP approves projects totaling over Rs142 billion

ISLAMABAD: CDWP approved 19 projects with a total cost of Rs142.3 billion.

At the meeting, which was led by Planning Secretary Zafar Ali Shah, 13 projects worth a total of Rs34.83 billion were approved, and another six projects worth a total of Rs107.5 billion were sent to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) for formal approval.

With the financial powers it has now, the CDWP can only approve projects that won’t cost more than Rs10bn. Projects with higher estimated costs are approved by Ecnec after the CDWP gives its technical approval.

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The Rs44.72 billion “Muzaffarabad-Mansehra Road” project was one of the projects sent to Ecnec for approval.

Plans include building a university in North Waziristan.

It plans to build a road that goes from Mansehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Muzaffarabad. This road will be 26.6 kilometres long.

Under the plan, 11 bridges and two tunnels would be built on the left side of the rivers Jhelum and Kunar.

When the road is connected to Mirpur, an industrial city in AJK, it will be a key part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

The goal of the project is to build a four-lane controlled access expressway that will connect the motorway network to Azad Kashmir quickly.

Ecnec was also told about a Rs16.32bn project to connect Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Kashmir.

The National Highway Authority (NHA) will build the 50 km mountain road that will connect Neelum Valley in AJK to Jalkhad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mansehra district.

The meeting also talked about the mini-sports complexes that Ecnec is building for Rs12bn.

The goal of the project is to make sports more popular by improving infrastructure. To do this, the federal and provincial governments will split the cost of building or improving 250 mini-sports complexes all over the country.

The provincial government will be in charge of making land available, and the Centre’s Public Sector Development Programme will be in charge of building the mini-complexes (PSDP).

The CDWP also suggested building and improving 250 vocational training institutes across the country, including in AJK, Gilgit-Baltistan, and the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This would cost a total of Rs12.61bn.

The goal of the project is to teach 300,000 young people how to get jobs.

Ecnec was also asked to approve the building of a new bridge with approach roads between Sukkur and Rohri over the Indus River. This project would cost Rs10.28bn.

Rohri is one of Pakistan’s largest railway hubs, while Sukkur is the third largest city in Sindh and is on the west bank of the Indus River.

There are three places where roads cross rivers between Rohri and Sukkur city at the moment.

The CDWP also suggested that another road project worth Rs11.58bn be approved. This project would turn the section of N-55 between D.G. Khan and D.I. Khan into a four-lane highway, make D.G. Khan-D.I. Khan into a dual-lane highway, and fix up D.G. Khan-D.I. Khan.

The CDWP also agreed to build a 132KV transmission line with a second circuit from Jiwani to Gwadar at a cost of Rs2.323bn.

It was agreed that the University of North Waziristan in the tribal district would cost Rs2bn to build.

A proposal to build a Knowledge Park in Islamabad and a “Network of Digital Libraries Capitals” at a cost of Rs6.9bn was also approved at the meeting.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has proposed a project to build a modern Knowledge Park and a network of digital libraries in the federal capital and all provincial capitals.

At the meeting, a feasibility study for the metro bus route in Quetta was also talked about.

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