CM Murad Ali Shah seeks WB funding to rebuild Karachi’s infrastructure

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday discussed a $143.9 million development portfolio of the province, including 35.1-million-dollar plans for Karachi's development, with the World Bank country director, and urged the international lending agency to support the provincial government for undertaking the reconstruction of the city’s rain-affected infrastructure.

The meeting was organised on video link. The World Bank’s new country director, Najy Benhassine, along with his team, joined the meeting from Islamabad. The chief minister was assisted by Chairman Planning & Development Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro and Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi.

Shah said that in a single day in August, Karachi received over 250 mm of rainfall, which destroyed the road network in the city. Therefore, he said, his government had decided to reconstruct the damaged road network and make all storm water drains functional by removing encroachments from all along the embankments.

He added that he visited four districts of the province -- Mirpurkhas, Umerkot, Sanghar and Badin -- which had also been hit hard by the monsoon downpour. He added that the standing crops had been destroyed and rainwater washed away a large number of homes. “We have shifted the affected people to a tent city set up in Umerkot,” he said.

The World Bank country chief assured the chief minister that he would work out a plan to finance the reconstruction of the infrastructure of Karachi, including the construction of storm water drains. The country director advised the chief minister to allow his P&D chairman to engage with the World Bank team for the submission of proposals along with other necessary documents.

The WB-funded projects worth $S608.8 are in progress in Sindh. They include a Sindh agriculture growth project of $56 million. This project has been completed by 81 per cent. Another is Sindh Agriculture Productivity Enhancement Project of $93.8 million, and it 51 per cent of it has been completed.

The Sindh Public Sector Management Reforms project of $47.4 million has also been completed, but its completion report is yet to be generated. The Sindh Enhancing Response to Reduce Stunting project worth $20 million has been completed by 32 per cent, the Sindh Resilience Project (SRP) of $71.2 million has been completed by 71 per cent, the Sindh Water Sector Improvement Project Phase-I (SWSIP) of $259.1 million has made 99 per cent progress, the Sindh Barrages Improvement Project (SBIP) of $56.4 million has seen 18 per cent progress, and the Sindh Multi-Sectoral Action Nutrition (MSAN) project with a $4 million budget has achieved 80 per cent completion. The Sindh Solar Energy Project (SSEP) of $1 million is in the initial stage.

At present, four World Bank-funded projects are in progress in the city. They are the Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Project of $25.3 million, and it has achieved 29 per cent progress; the Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project of &1.1 million, which has been started recently and its progress is just three percent; the Karachi Mobility project of $4 million is also a new project and has been started recently; and the Competitive and Livable City of Karachi Project (CLICK) of $4.8 million is a new project and two

per cent work has been done on it.