Ishaq Dar to chair ECNEC session tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will chair a session of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Thursday (tomorrow), ARY News reported.

Sources told ARY News that a 10-point agenda will be discussed in the upcoming ECNEC session which includes the projects of transport communication sector, information technology and water sector.

Sources added that two projects related to the energy sector will also be presented before the committee for approval.

In December last year, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) had approved seven development projects worth over Rs440 billion for reconstruction and rehabilitation in flood-affected areas of Pakistan.

The forum had approved the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of N-5 from Moro to Ranipur under ADB Flood Emergency Loan, at the total cost of 36.211 billion rupees. It will be funded by the Asian Development Bank with 90 percent share while remaining ten percent share will be provided by the government of Pakistan. The Bridge component of the project consists of Bridges on National Highway Network in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The ECNEC also accorded approval to Emergency Flood Assistance Project at the total cost of 3828 million rupees. It will be funded by the Government of Balochistan and Asian Development Bank under a Loan. The project will be implemented in flood affected districts of Balochistan. The proposed project envisages restoration of flood damaged on-farm water management infrastructure for revival of agriculture production in the severely flood affected districts of the province, Radio Pakistan reported.

The Council had approved Sindh Flood Emergency Rehabilitation Project at the total cost of 48,327.22 Million rupees to be fully funded by the World Bank. The project is related to the issues of water conservation, protection of infrastructure from floods and institutional reforms in various districts of Sindh province.

It had also approved Sindh Flood Emergency Rehabilitation Programme, Rescue 1122 Component, with total cost of 66,002.57 million rupees.