WB agrees to finance three projects in Karachi       

KARACHI: A World Bank (WB) delegation led by Country Director Patchamuthu Illangovan met with Sind Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday and decided to finance three important projects for Karachi.

According to a statement released from CM office, the four-member World Bank delegation agreed to finance Urban Management Project, Service Unit and Yellow Line project for Karachi.

The meeting was attended by WB Operations Manager Melinda Good, Operation Officer Amena Raja, Program Leader Saiyed Shabih Ali Mohib, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid jamal Abro, Additioanl Secretary Cm Secretariat Shahab Qamar and others, reads the statement.

Urban Management Project:

Under this project the capacity building of KMC and six DMCs would be developed and institutional reforms would also be introduced there.

Under this project institutional reforms will be introduced in Karachi Water & Sewerage Board. Metering and billing system would also be established along with major restructuring the board.

Yellow Line:

The World Bank agreed to construct the entire infrastructure of BRT Yellow Line starting from Dawood Chowrangi to Numaish.

Service Unit:

The chief minister said that there were some procurement issues in 12 on-going world bank projects in Sindh. These projects are in progress Irrigation, Agriculture, health, education and nutrition sectors.

Shah said that these 12 projects have 12 different project directors and they all were making procurement on their own but through different and time consuming approach. He proposed the WB bank to set up a separate unit under which procurement for all the World Bank projects could be made under one umbrella.

The meeting decided that the World Bank officers would hold another meeting with Chairman P&D to give final shape to the projects so that they could be approved in the third meeting.