CM Sindh seeks ADB assistance for Karachi desalination plant, road infrastructure uplift

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Thursday urged the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to assist the provincial government in priority areas such water, sanitation, urban transport and improvement of road network

The chief minister was holding a meeting with a delegation of ABD led by its Director-General Central West Asian Department (CWRD) Mr. Werner Liepach. The other delegation members include Director Social Sector CWRD Ms. Rie Hiraoka, Country Director Pakistan Xiaohong Yang, Senior Project Officer Mian Shaukat Shafi, PRM Senior Programs Officer, Nasruminallah Mian and Project Director Ms. Sana Masood,

The chief minister said he has assigned top priorities to education, health, water and sanitation, urban transport, improvement of road network. “The overall improvement of social sectors is need of hour, therefore we are focusing on it,” he said.

Desalination plant in Karachi

The chief minister said that the government a planned to install desalination plant to provide drinking water to the people of Karachi. He said that similar water supply and drainage schemes are being planned for other districts of the province.

ABD DG assured CM Sindh of technical and financial support. It was agreed that the provincial government through Planning and Development department would provide details of the proposed desalination plants, water and drainage schemes to the ABD.

Uplift of road infrastructures

Chairman Planning and Development Muhammad Waseem said that under the ADB-sponsored Sindh Provincial Improvement Program (SPRIP), six roads of 328 km have been constructed in Badin, TM Khan, Matiari, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Jacobabad, Kandhkot, Kashmore and Larkana.

CM Sindh said the government saved an amount of Rs38.92 million in the construction of these six roads, and has worked out a plan to construct three other important roads having cumulative length of 82 km.

They are the road from Sehwan railway crossing at N-55 to Dadu via Tilti up to Dadu-Moro Road which is around 32 km, the 22 km road from Chambar to Tando Allahyar, and 28 Road from Jehan Khan (N-65) to Fezu Laro (N-55) via Chak Town of Sukkur-Shirkarpur area. The ABD official agreed to take up the package of three roads.

The ADB team was also informed that another 20 roads of 847 km length have been approved by CM Sindh costing around Rs 41,200 million. The projects have been approved by he Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) and federal government’s Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and require financing to commence work.

ABD to support project to improve education

The ABD was briefed about the Sindh Secondary Education Improvement (SSEIP) project worth $150 million project in which provincial government share comes to $15 million. It has three components, access to quality secondary education, teaching & learning capacity and improvement in education system.

The chief minister said that he had declared education emergency during his last tenure and after going through the overall education system he found these three interventions, quality education, improving teaching and learning capacity and improvement in education system are required.

Chairman P&D said that the project has been approved by CDWP and has been sent to Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) for approval. The ADB DG said that the bank would continue to support the project.

Red line BRT project

Another project called the Enhancing Public Private Partnerships (EPPP) is envisaged to strengthen the capacity to select and develop PPP projects and effectively manage fiscal risk. The project would cost $184.13 million in which provincial government share would be $64.9 million and has already been cleared by CDWP and is now in progress.

Furthermore, the Red line BRT project has been designed and would start from Model Colony to Numaish. The provincial government urged the ADB to financially support in infrastructure development and procurement of buses.

The ADB DG assigned the task to his team members in the country to collect all relevant documents from the provincial government so that it could be moved for approval.