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KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali
Shah has emphasized the need to initiate various projects
to provide basic facilities and incentives to common man.
“It is the endeavour of present elected government to
provide communication, health and education facilities to
people as it is need of hour and people were deprived of these
since many years”. He was chairing the second meeting
of Public-Private Partnership Policy Board at Chief Minister
House here Friday. On the occasion various projects were presented
before the meeting for discussion and further decisions. The
meeting reviewed the progress achieved so far on “Hyderabad-
Mirpurkhas Road Project” in detai1.
It was informed that 67 km long road will cost Rs. 8.575 billion.
The width of existing road is 33.52 meters (110 ft) while
under the project it will be a duel track road with each track
being 24 ft wide. It was pointed out that government would
need to ensure low premium debt to keep the project cost at
minimum level. The meeting was told that the project will
be completed in 30 months on BOT basis which will be given
for 30 years period.
Over a 1000 persons will have direct employment while over
5000 will get technical and industrial employment. The Policy
Board gave go ahead for the Draft Concession Agreement with
the condition that this may be further refined after consultation
with stakeholders and vetting by international legal consultant
to be appointed by the Asian Development Bank. The final draft
of Concession Agreement would be approved by the Board. The
Board approved the composition of technical & financial
committee and oversight committee and terms of reference were
discussed and finalised.
Chief Minister approved defederalisation of Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas
Road and directed Secretary Works and Service Department to
initiate defederalisation process with Federal Government.
He also approved recovery of toll Hyderabad_Mirpurkhas Road
to ensure revenue generation for this project. It was decided
that bids for the project will be evaluated upto January 15,
2009, agreement made upto February 12 and financial closure
made by the end of February 2009 while the implementation
process will be made in the end of March 2009.
The meeting was apprised that there will be over Rs. 8 to
10 billion investment in the whole region and will provide
impetus to business, agriculture and industry to grow while
social benefits in education, health poverty alleviation,
rural development and road safety.
The Board unanimously agreed to speed up the Project Development
process in respect of other major Public-Private Partnership
(PPP) Projects including establishment of Institutes of Management
Sciences at Dadu and District Benazir Abad; College of Arts
and Designing at Sukkur; development of Gorakh Hill and Keenjhar
Lake.
The meeting also discussed other projects, which was attended
by Sindh Minister for Fisheries Zahid Hussain Bhurgari, Chief
Secretary Fazalur-Rehman, Additional Chief Secretary (P&D)
Nazar Hussain Mahar, Dr. Ahmed Ali Shah MPA, Secretary Finance,
Secretary Works & Services, Special Secretary Finance,
EDO Mithi, M.A Jabbar and Khalid M. Shaikh of Finance Department.—RT |
