The road to prosperity? Local govt to spend most funds on roads

Next largest slice of the pie allocated to water and sanitation schemes.

KARACHI: Pakistan's leadership seems to draw a lot of inspiration from Sher Shah Suri — the Pashtun ruler credited with building the Grand Trunk Road. The Sindh government seems to be particularly taken with the idea of building roads, with a large chunk of the local government budget set aside for this.

The budget document for fiscal year 2015-2016 shows that Rs6.9 billion have been allocated only for the development of roads out of a total of Rs14.86 billion in the annual development plan. The allocation of this hefty 46 per cent of the funds for the one sector has put others at risk. The forthcoming fiscal year will start with the agenda of constructing 189 roads, while the environment, which needs much attention, will receive one new scheme only.



These plans fall within the remits of the local government department, which has been pledged to enter the public fold after the September polls. The budget document, however, holds no provision for the elections.

The sector that received the second highest grant is water supply and sanitation. It has been promised Rs5.9 billion.

The Dhabeji pumping station has received the lion's share of these funds at Rs1.6 billion. Of this, Rs1.4 billion will be spent on the construction of a new pump that will add 100 million gallons daily (MGD) to the existing supply and Rs0.2b for the station's up-gradation.

There are 564 schemes, including those of the public health engineering department, which the government plans to carry out in the next fiscal year.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2015.