CDWP okays seven projects worth Rs104b

Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal on Friday chaired a meeting of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) that approved seven projects worth Rs104 billion. "Out of these, four projects with a cumulative cost of Rs8 billion were approved at the CDWP level. Additionally, three major projects, amounting to Rs96 billion, were recommended to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) for final approval," a news release said.

The forum approved two projects relating to industries and commerce namely the "1,000 Industrial Stitching Units (Phase-II)" worth Rs1,950 million and the "Acquisition of Land for Establishment of SME Facilitation Centres at Various Locations" worth Rs1,250 million.

It gave the go-ahead to two projects pertaining to information technology namely the "Development of Pakistan Lunar Exploration Rover (PLExR) for Chang'E-8 Mission" worth Rs2,535 million and the "Pakistan Manned Space Mission" worth Rs2,243 million.

The CDWP referred three projects belonging to the transport and communication sector to Ecnec including the "Improvement of Road from Sanghar to National Highway N-5 at Point Rohri via Mundh Jamrao and Saleput 0.00 to 221 km" with a revised cost of Rs36,910 million. Another project titled the "Construction of Additional Carriageway along Mehran Highway from Nawabshah to Ranipur (135 km)" was forwarded to Ecnec at a revised cost of Rs41,034 million.

The forum referred a project called the "Improvement of Road from Rohri to Guddu Barrage @ M-5 Interchange Sadiqabad via Khanpur Mahar, Mirpur Mathelo & Mureed Shah (150 km)" to Ecnec at a revised cost of Rs17,971 million.