Ecnec approves Sambrial-Kharian Motorway, Gwadar International Airport

ISLAMABAD:  The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Wednesday approved the projects of satellite technology, communication, power and education.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin chaired the Ecnec meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting gave go-ahead to the Sambrial-Kharian Motorway project submitted by the Ministry of Communication along with the directives to the National Highway Authority (NHA) to present the progress on development of the business model to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet.

The project envisages construction of 69km long, four-lane wide Sambrial-Kharian Motorway with structures to be constructed for six lanes. The meeting, especially lauded the efforts of the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Communication for finalising this project on a public-private partnership basis.

The Ecnec also gave approval to the new Gwadar International Airport’s second revised project. The second revised project envisages construction of the new Gwadar International Airport along with the allied facilities over a piece of land already acquired. The new airport will replace the existing airport in Gwadar, which has small terminal building with limited capacity. It will be suitable for bigger aircraft such as Airbus A-380 and Boeing 747 and 777, etc.

The meeting also gave green signal to Pakistan Optical Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS-02) project of Suparco worth Rs27.9 billion. The project will help build an indigenous capacity in the fields of space/satellite technology and its applications, institutional capacity building of Suparco and promote high-tech R&D activities in the country. The project will also contribute in the acquisition of self-reliance in satellite technologies in Pakistan.

The project of the Ministry of Energy on the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-funded advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco), with the directives to start the project without any delay as a pilot project and include other electric supplying companies.

The project envisages enhancing load control and its management up to the interface of the electricity distribution system operated by the distribution companies.

The AMI project is designed as a least cost solution to reduce losses and efficiently balance the supply in the specific areas of Iesco.

The Ecnec also approved the position paper for amendments in ECNEC decision, 2004 and for approval of self-finance development schemes of distribution companies/entities, submitted by the Ministry of Energy.

It also approved re-modelling of Warsak Canal System in Peshawar and Nowshera districts worth Rs16.69 billion. The second revised PC-1 was considered on a 50:50 cost sharing basis between the federal and provincial governments. Any variation in the cost of the project will be borne by the provincial government.

The meeting also approved Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP-revised) project worth Rs12.78 billion financed by the World Bank. The project activities will be executed throughout Pakistan.

A project, Pakistan University of Engineering and Emerging Technologies (PUEET) Phase-I (Knowledge Economy Initiative) of HEC with a cost of Rs23.54 billion was also considered during the meeting.

PUEET would be a research and commercialisation university, which would house various centres of excellence in the cutting-edge fields of science and technology and a state-of-the-art technology park.

The Ecnec gave approval to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa cities improvement project (KPCIP) at a cost of Rs97,146 million. The project will improve the quality of life of the residents of five cities, including Abbottabad, Kohat, Mardan, Mingora and Peshawar, directly benefitting around six million urban population.

The meeting also approved the construction of 10th Avenue from IJP road to Srinagar Highway Islamabad at a total cost of Rs12.14 billion. The project would be executed in two phases and would be completed in two years’ time.

It deferred the decision on Greater Thar Canal project with the directives to relevant stakeholders, both at the federal and provincial levels, to reach a consensus among themselves prior to its resubmission to the Ecnec.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umer, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, federal secretaries and other senior officers from the federal and provincial governments participated in the meeting.