Meeting reviews uplift projects

The 6th Coordination Committee constituted by the Sindh and the federal governments met at the CM House on Sunday to decide on mega-projects for the economic hub of the country.

The committee took important decisions regarding projects, including the establishment of combined effluent treatment plants on public, private partnership, initiating the K-IV water supply scheme by the provincial government and NOCs for Mauripur Expressway and ICI Interchange project.

The meeting also decided on the matter of the relocation of Rangers from Malir Halt and the Meteorological Observatory to facilitate the Bus Rapid Transport Red Line project.

The meeting was attended by CM Murad Ali Shah, Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar, Federal Minister for IT Syed Aminul Haque, Corps Commander Karachi Lt Gen Muhammad Saeed and Sindh Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah. Karachi Corps Commander told the meeting that Pakistan Rangers would vacate the depots once the provincial transport department starts work on the Red Line BRT project.

The Sindh government urged the federal ministers to direct Civil Aviation Authority to allot 14 acres of land out of identified 52 acres under CAA possession for relocation of Rangers. Federal Minister Asad Umer assured the chief minister that the matter would be solved through his office. Rehabilitation of Gujar and Orangi nullahs The meeting was told that Right of Way (RoW) has reduced from 30 feet to 18.5 feet.

In order to achieve 30ft RoW, an anti-encroachment drive along the Gujjar and Orangi nullahs is required. The participants of the meeting discussed the matter at length and decided to reduce RoW to 20 feet in which a wall along the nullahs would be constructed within two feet of the watercourses and n 18-feet wide two-lane road would be constructed for vehicular traffic.

The local government department told the meeting that NED University carried out a study on 41 nullahs in KMC jurisdiction and 25 among this required immediate rehabilitation.

The chief minister said that it was Rs2 billion project for which Rs1 billion had already been allocated. K-IV project During deliberations it was observed that K-IV Project has serious issues and in order to address them, it was decided to develop better coordination between the Center and provincial government for the execution of both conveyance systems and augmentation of K-IV.

The meeting was told that revised PC-1 would be placed before ECNEC. The chief minister said that as far as installation of the 50 MW power plant was concerned, he would discuss with his team. However, the meeting decided to direct all the federal government agencies to issue NOCs for the augmentation project of K-IV to be executed by the Sindh government.

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Anti-encroachment The Karachi commissioner told the meeting that National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has released Rs1.32 billion for resettlement support of the people evicted during the anti-encroachment drive and hiring of machinery. NDMA representative said that they have released more amount.

The commissioner claimed Rs518.713 million in excess expenditures incurred on hiring machinery. The meeting decided that Commissioner Karachi and NDMA would sit together to reconcile the expenditures and settle the payment issue within a week. Solid waste management MD SSWMB Zubair Channa briefing the meeting about the initiatives taken to remove garbage from the city said that the cleaning of all the districts of Karachi, except Central have been outsourced to well-reputed foreign firms.

The process of handing over cleaning of Central district was in the process. It was also decided that the matter for regulating the garbage disposal generated in the cantonments board and clearance of outstanding dues of SSWMB would be resolved. Effluent treatment plants The meeting was told that the project titled 'Establishment of Five Combined Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP)' for Rs11.799 billion with 33 per cent of federal and 67 per cent share of provincial government respectively.

The cost estimates of the components of CETP-2 and CETP-4 with interceptors have exceeded the estimates of the different components in the revised PC-1.

In a meeting held in Sindh P&D it has been decided to execute this project on PPP mode. Provincial ministers, Nasir Shah, Saeed Ghani, Administrator Karachi Murtaza Wahab, Federal Secretary Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Aziz Uqaili, Sindh Planning and Development Department Chairman Hassan Naqvi, Transport Secretary Shariq Ahmed, Local Government Secretary Najam Shah, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board MD Asadullah Khan, Sindh Solid Waste Management Board MD Zubair Channa, Municipal Commissioner Afzal Zaidi, PD KWISSP Salahuddin and others.