Federal Government greenlights Rs37 billion for the 31 CPEC development projects under PDSP for FY2019-20

The federal government has released about Rs 37 billion (38.5 percent) for China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) development projects under Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) 2019-20 against the total budgeted allocation of Rs 95.73 billion, it is learnt.

Total cost of 31 CPEC development projects is Rs 1.62 trillion while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has allocated Rs 95.73 billion for this current fiscal year under PSDP.

They said the government has released Rs 360 million under PSDP 2019-20 for the preliminary design/drawing for up-gradation/rehabilitation of main ML-I railway project, establishment of a dry port near Havelian under CPEC and hiring of design/drawing vetting consultants. The ML-1 Railway Project (Karachi-Peshawar) is an important strategic part of the CPEC and the government has allocated Rs 1.8 billion for its preliminary design in the year 2019-20.

Out of the total allocation of Rs 16 billion under PSDP 2019-20, the Railway Division has so far received Rs 5.4 billion for various development projects.

The government released Rs 114 million for the rehabilitation of terminal facilities and dry ports, and Rs 100 million for upgrade and renovation of different railway stations.

For the rehabilitation and procurement of 300 remanufactured traction motors, an amount of Rs 80 million was released out of the total allocation of Rs 400 million, whereas for the acquisition of land for railway corridor at Gwadar, an amount of Rs 160 million was released out of the total allocation of Rs 800 million. According to the documents, government has allocated Rs 4.5 billion for upgrade of Pakistan Railway existing Main Line-1 (ML-I) and establishment of dry port near Havelian (2018-22) Phase-1 (CPEC) while the cost of the project is Rs 324.66 billion.

The government has allocated Rs 555 million for New Gwadar International Airport project for current fiscal year while the total cost of project is Rs 22.25 billion.

Meanwhile, the federal government has released Rs 257.17 billion (36.7 percent) including Rs 53.62 billion foreign aid (41.8 percent) for various ongoing and new development projects under PSDP 2019-20 against the total budgeted allocation of Rs 701 billion.

According to latest data of PSDP 2019-20 released by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform, the government released Rs 113.95 billion (37.5 percent) including Rs 7.88 billion foreign aid for development projects of various ministries, divisions and related departments out of Rs 303.66 billion budgeted allocation.

The government released Rs 80.029 billion for the development projects of National Highway Authority (NHA) out of Rs 154.966 billion budgeted allocation and Rs 26.78 billion have been released for Security Enhancement against Rs 32.5 billion budgeted allocation.

The ministry released a total of Rs 30 billion, including Rs 3 billion foreign aid, for Water Resources Division out of Rs 85.73 billion, while Rs 4 billion have been released for Interior Division against Rs 9.85 billion budgeted allocations for current financial year. The ministry also released Rs 16 billion for the development projects of Cabinet Division.

The Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform also released Rs 10.64 billion against the total of Rs 27.264 billion budgeted allocation for development projects of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Rs 6.57 billion for the development projects of Gilgit-Baltistan against Rs 17.585 billion budgeted allocation.