Pakistan

Govt allocates Rs23.5b for road reconstruction

Roads destroyed by floods will be repaired immediately, communication secretary tells NA.

Zahid Gishkori December 23, 2011

ISLAMABAD:

The government has decided to allocate Rs23.5 billion on an immediate basis to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) to carry out reconstruction works on roads damaged during this year’s flood.

A PC-1 of Rs23.56 billion has already been forwarded to the ECNEC for approval, Communication Parliamentary Secretary Chaudhry Saeed Iqbal told the National Assembly on Thursday.

“A loan agreement has been signed with the Asian Development Bank for the flood emergency reconstruction project,” Iqbal added. “An amount of Rs2.3 billion has already been spent on repair of highways and motorways damaged by the floods.”

Speaking on floor of the lower house, he said, the Kallar Kahar portion of the Motorway will be realigned to avert serious accidents. The National Highway Authority has planned to undertake the expansion of Muzaffargarh to Dera Ghazi Khan through a public-private partnership from October next year, he added.

To a question by MNA Tasneem Siddiqui, Minister for Communication Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan said that work on the 133-kilometre Karachi-Hyderabad (M-9) will start next year. “Negotiations for undertaking this project on the Build, Operate & Transfer basis with a Malaysian company will be signed next month,” he revealed.

Earlier, the National Assembly was informed that the toll connection on motorways is being upgraded and replaced with the electronic toll traffic management system.

Lifeline for poor

Meanwhile, Minister for Religious Affairs Khurshid Ahmad Shah said that currently over 5.8 million families were living below the poverty line in the country. They are being given cash grants on a regular basis under the Benazir Income Support Programme, he added.

Replying to a query by MNA Pervaiz Khan, he said that these beneficiaries are also being given health insurance and a proposal is under consideration to exempt them from paying taxes.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2011.