ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development andReform on Monday unanimously recommended to start work on Western Route ofChina Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on priority basis by removing alltechnical, bureaucratic, and financial hurdles immediately.
The Committee expressed its serious reservations over unnecessary delay inconstruction of Western Rote saying that the government could not finalizethe PC-1 of Dera Ismail Khan-Zhob and Zhob-Quetta roads during previousthree years.
The meeting of the Committee was held here under the chairmanship ofSenator Agha Shahzaib Khan Durrani and was attended by Senators Gianchand,Kauda Babar, Rukhsana Zuberi, Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar and Hidayat Ullah.
Usman Kakar alleged that the government was giving least priority toWestern Route as it spent over two and half years to finalize the PC-1 ofthe projects which had not yet been completed.
The meeting was informed that PC-1 of the 210 kilometer D. I. Khan-Zhobroad was almost on final stage and within 45 days it would be finalized.
Project Director of CPEC in the Ministry, Hassan Daud Butt said that theMinistry would strongly take up the issue of Western Route with Chinesegovernment in 8th Joint Coordination Committee on CPEC to be held in Chinain couple of months to ensure early completion of the projects.
Giving briefing on Gwadar projects, Hassan Daud said work on the US$140million Gwadar Eastbay Expressway was in progress and it would be completedin October 2020.
He said currently there were four berths at Gwadar port while in futurenine more berths would be constructed and the depth of the port would alsobe increased.
He said at present one ship carrying fisheries products sails away once ina week. Chairman of the Committee also expressed its reservations over slowprogress of Gwadar projects saying that these projects should have giventop priority however the reality is vise versa.
Kauda Babar informed the Committee that recently he visited China where hemet with Chinese officials who were also not happy with the slow progressof Gwadar projects. Regarding water supply issue in Gwadar, the meeting wasinformed that at present, a Chinese company was providing three milliongallons of water per day to the city while the total demand was over 6million gallons of water daily.
He said billions of rupees were spent on construction of dam and pipelinesin the city, however due to no rains in the area, the dam was of not use.
However he said if this money would have been spent on desalination plants,there would have no issue of water in the city. He said electricity was thebiggest issue in the city now.
He said at present the total demand of the city is not more than 20 MWwhich can be arranged easily, however no attention is being given on thisissue. “Without basic facilities of water, electricity and security, howthe investors could be convinced to established industries in the city,” hequestioned.
The meeting was informed that as many as 8 investors including four fromChina had signed Memorandum of Understandings to establish industries inGwadar free zone.
Regarding energy projects under CPEC, the meeting was informed that anamount of $34.74 billion whad been invested in the projects purely onIndependent Power Producer (IPP) financing mode.
Secretary Ministry of Planning, Hassan Zafar said the government gives onlysovereign guarantee to the projects under IPP financing mode and it hadnothing to do with repayments.
He informed that so far total government-led debt under CPEC amounted to $6billion while all other investment was either on IPP financing mode, orgrant.
The meeting was also informed that the government was giving priority toclean, alternative and cheaper electricity as the tariff of solarelectricity was about Rs 5 per unit while that of imported coal was aboutRs 8.5 per unit.
However the electricity tariff per unit of mine mouth Thar coal based powerprojects would be only Rs 4.5 per unit, the meeting was informed.