Standing committee discusses EOBI projects

KARACHI: The construction of a 134 kilometre-long, six-lane-wide Karachi-Hyderabad motorway project, worth Rs17 billion, will start in January 2011 and will be completed within two years, Employees Old-age Benefit Institution (EOBI) chairman Zafar Iqbal Gondal informed the senate’s standing committee on labour and manpower at a meeting on Tuesday.

Gondal also informed the committee of EOBI’s plans to invest in the Karachi-Peshawar high speed train project, mass transit schemes in big cities and power generation to earn funds for the welfare of workers. These schemes are to be finalised after discussions with foreign consultants, he added.

The committee advised Gondal to start work on all the projects after obtaining feasibility reports for their timely completion. EOBI should only invest in companies that are turning profits and whose shares are in good direction, it was further directed. The committee also reviewed the reports that were submitted by sub-committees on the purchase of land for labour complexes and the future plans of Primaco, a subsidiary of EOBI.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2010.