Flood housing project cost revised from Rs160bn to Rs296bn

ISLAMABAD: The government has to revised upward the cost of the Flood Response Emergency Housing Project from Rs160 billion to Rs296 billion after devaluation of the rupee against the US dollar and inclusion of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and federal government funding. With increase in the funding the number of houses has also been increased.

With the World Bank (WB) and IsDB loan amount, the government will construct houses in Sindh. The (WB) has extended loans of $500 million and IsDB $200 million. The federal and Sindh governments will provide Rs50 billion each and this project will be completed in 36 months period. The IsDB will charge highest markup of 5.1 percent on a $175 million loan, and 1.5 percent on a $25 million, while the WB will charge 2 percent on $500 million.

According to official announcement of Ministry of Planning on Thursday, the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) meeting, presided over by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jehanzeb Khan, approved one development project with a cost of Rs45.69 million and recommended three projects worth Rs358.81 billion to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) for further consideration.

Planning Commission senior officials and federal ministries/ divisions participated in the meeting, while Chairman/ ACS (Dev) from provincial governments were also present. Projects related to education, physical planning and housing sectors were considered in the meeting.

Three projects related to education presented in the meeting namely “Getting Results Access and Delivery of Quality Education Services (Grades) Punjab project” worth Rs42.75 billion recommended to Ecnec for further consideration. The Grades project aims to consolidate Punjab’s response to the learning losses accumulated during the Covid-19 pandemic, which have been a major setback for progress in Punjab’s education indicators. While Punjab responded on various fronts with SOPs, a reduced curriculum, re-enrollment campaigns, remote learning opportunities, maintaining education budgets and other measures, the losses are still visible in macro-indicators. The total amount of funding will be provided by the World Bank through a loan, with $96.877 million provided on project mode and $53.123 million through Performance Based Conditions (PBC).

The education sector’s second project, the “Sindh Basic Education Programme,” valued at Rs20 billion, has been recommended to Ecnec for consideration. This initiative is stated to be funded through foreign sources, with an approximate foreign grant of $154.978 million from Usaid (equivalent to around Rs19.19 billion), and a contribution of Rs870 million (approximately $10 million) from the Government of Sindh.

During the meeting, another project in the Education Sector, titled “Capacity Building of Education Managers (CBEM) (2nd Revised),” with a value of Rs45.69 million, was approved by the CDWP forum after detail discussion.

A project related to Physical Planning & Housing presented in the meeting namely “Flood Response Emergency Housing Project (revised)” worth Rs296 billion recommended to Ecnec for consideration. The Government of Sind will contribute counterpart share of Rs50 billion, where World Bank loan financing would be $500 million equivalent to Rs140 billion. Islamic Development Bank via Islamic Financing arrangements are US$200 million equivalent to Rs56 billion. The project aims to support the flood-affected people in all districts of the Sind in the reconstruction and repairs of their houses.