Federal govt to allocate funds for KP projects under CPEC in budget

ISLAMABAD: The federal government would allocate funds of billions of rupees in the upcoming annual budget for five mega projects that would be completed under the multi-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, sources told The News here on Saturday.

According to official documents, the funds would be allocated for the projects including construction of 600 kilometres new Karakorum Highway, 840 megawatts Suki Kinari hydropower project, a modern Peshawar-Karachi railway network, dry port facility at Havelian and installation of optic fibre link from Khunjerab to Islamabad.

The documents showed that more than 600 kilometres new Karakorum Highway would go through KP and the demand for a six-lane highway in treacherous terrain is not practical as the dual carriage road can meet the requirement. The 840 megawatts Suki Kinari hydropower project is the largest private sector initiative in Pakistan as it has been designed to produce 2.95 GWh annually and it would help cope with the growing demand of electricity in the country.

As far as installation of the optic fibre link from Khunjerab to Islamabad is concerned, the project would comprise deployment of 820 kilometres on the Karakorum Highway in phase-I and conversion into ring protection by deploying another 1,000 kilometres optical fibre cable on alternate route and in Phase-III extension till Gwadar Port. The executing agency Special Communication Organisation (SCO) awarded the contract to Huawei China to implement this project. 

It is pertinent to mention here that KP Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak has claimed that the western route has been restricted only to a road while the project’s additional components including fibre optic, railway track, gas pipeline, LNG and other facilities have been attached with the eastern route of the CPEC project. On the other hand, the federal government has stated time and again that it would honour its commitment given at the all parties conference that was convened in Islamabad after the visit of Chinese President XI Jingping to Pakistan in April 2015.

Talking to The News, spokesman for the KP government Mushtaq Ghani said the Planning Commission has given them written assurance that a full-fledged corridor would be built in KP under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) having all the necessary facilities like electricity, telephone lines, fibre optics, gas pipeline, LNG and railway lines.

“The KP government has approached the federal government and we are likely to hold a meeting between our representatives who will review the status of the written assurance given by the Planning Commission to construct a corridor with allied facilities in KP,” he said.

When contacted, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal said the government has made it clear time and again that KP would get its due share in the CPEC project.

“Those who say that KP is only getting a simple road from the CPEC project are trying to misguide the public because work to provide all other facilities is currently underway in the province. The people of KP will greatly benefit from the CPEC project that would help improve their socio-economic conditions,” he said.

The minister said the government made commitment in the all parties conference held in May 2015 to provide KP and other provinces their due share from the CPEC project and it would do it in a befitting manner.