ECNEC okays Rs308b motorway

Forum approves uplift projects worth Rs396 billion

ISLAMABAD:

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), in its meeting chaired by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on Wednesday, approved various infrastructure projects worth Rs396 billion, including the Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway.

The motorway project will be constructed on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis through the public-private partnership with a revised cost estimate of
Rs308.2 billion.

The project had also been cleared by the previous government but the final nod was given on Wednesday.

In the motorway project, the government’s share is Rs10.3 billion – Rs9.5 billion as capital, Rs300 million as the National Highway Authority (NHA) establishment charges and Rs500 million as contingencies. The project will be executed by the NHA.

The project envisages construction of 306km-long six-lane motorway between Hyderabad and Sukkur with divided fence. Ecnec said that the approval was subjected to fulfilment of all codal formalities and approval of the legislation from the National Assembly.

Ecnec also approved the construction of the four-lane Lahore-Sialkot Motorway (LSM) link highway, connecting the motorway to Narang Mandi and Kartarpur, Narowal, including the Narowal Eastern Bypass at a revised rationalised cost of
Rs17.4 billion.

The revised project envisages rehabilitation, dualisation and construction of 73km-long four-lane dual carriageway, connecting Kartarpur with the LSM and Nankana. The project will be completed in three years.

Ecnec also approved the Punjab Urban Lane Systems Enhancement Project (PULSE) at a cost of Rs25.5 billion. The project will be executed by the Board of Revenue (BoR) through the Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA) and Provincial Disaster Management
Authority (PDMA).

The project aims 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 100% loan by the World Bank and to be completed in 60 months.

Ecnec approved another project of the construction of northern section of the ring road – the missing link – from Warsak road to Nasir Bagh road at a cost of Rs16.5 billion. The project is fully funded and executed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

The project envisages construction of 8.7 kms six-lane road, which will be completed in three years. Ecnec observed that projects, which were fully funded by provinces with no foreign funding, might be exempted from consideration by Central Development Working Party (CDWP)
and Ecnec.

Ecnec approved revised project of the construction of the Mangi Dam in Balochistan at a cost of Rs13.3 billion. The federal government will bear only 50 % of the originally-approved cost of the 61 metres high dam, located about 60 kms east of Quetta on
Khost river.

Any other increase in the cost due to upgradation of power supply grid station and transmission line will be borne by the province. The concrete gravity dam will have a reservoir capacity of 36.4 million cubic metres (MCM) and 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 the Quetta city. The proposed Mangi dam will enable a supply of 8.1 million gallons per day (mgd) water to Quetta.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2022.

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