CDWP gives go-ahead to Rs191.72bln worth of projects

ISLAMABAD: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Monday, approved one development project with a cost of Rs528.4 million and also recommended project worth Rs191.195 billion to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for further consideration.

Deputy chairman Planning Commission Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan chaired the CDWP meeting while secretary planning Abdul Aziz Uqaili, senior officials from planning commission and ministries and divisions also participated in the meeting. Representatives from provincial governments participated through video conferences.

A statement said projects related to health, physical planning and housing, education, information technology sectors were presented in the meeting.

Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination, presented ‘Establishment of Safe Blood Transfusion Services in ICT’ project worth Rs528.4 million which was approved by the forum.

The project is proposed to be financed through foreign funding (KFW grant) and PSDP. The overall project objective is the establishment of a state-of-the-art Regional Blood Centre (RBC) in Islamabad to provide safe blood and blood products to the linked hospital blood banks of ICT.

Elimination of duplication of services, improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness by placing hospital blood banks under RBC 3 Islamabad for the supply of safe blood products. Increasing voluntary non-remunerated blood donation (VNRBD) from 12 percent (estimated) to 1,000/, in a phased manner including conversion of replacement/family donors to regular blood donors and ensuring rational use of blood and blood products.

A project related to physical planning and housing presented in the meeting namely “Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme K-IV 650 MGD (1st Revised)” by the ministry of Water Resources at a cost of Rs191,195 billion.

The project was recommended at reduced scope and cost that is 260MGD water and the cost is Rs126 billion with the constitution of a committee to settle certain observations before submission of the project to ECNEC. Deputy chairman of the commission emphasized that there is a severe water shortage in Karachi and therefore the project needs to be carried out on a fast track basis.

CDWP forum cleared two position papers (PP) worth Rs3.176 billion. The first PP was presented by the ministry of Federal Education namely “Establishment of Directorate General of Religious Education” worth Rs1.253 billion and the second PP was presented by the ministry of Information Technology namely “Cyber Security for Digital Pakistan Phase-1 ICT” worth Rs1.923 billion.