ISLAMABAD – Senate Special Committee on China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) was informed on Monday that the D.I. Khan-Zhob motorway project ofCPEC Western Route is still in the consultancy stage and no actual work hasinitiated as of today.
This road is the only project of the Western Route that has Chinesecomponent in it and allother development on Western Route will be done through Public SectorDevelopment Programme (PSDP) funding, the Committee was told.
The meeting was convened by Senator Sherry Rehman here at the ParliamentHouse and was attended among others by Senators Dr. Sikandar Mandhro,Muhammad Ali Khan Saif, GhousMuhammad Khan Niazi, Muhammad Ali Shah Jamot, Nuzhat Sadiq, Sardar MuhammadYaqoob Khan Nasar, Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar, Muhammad Akram, Muhammad AzamKhan Swati, Atta ur Rehman, Samina Saeed, Sitaray Ayaz, Minister forPlanning, Development and Reforms Khusro Bakhtiar, Secretary Planning ZafarHassan, Senior Joint Secretary Tariq Jaffery, Project DirectorCPEC Ehsan Dawood and other officials from the ministry.
Sherry Rehman took strong cognizance of the fact that the sole CPEC projecton Western Projectis still in Consultancy stages and no work has completed so far.She along with other members of the Committee sought details on thetimelines of thisproject and decided to call a separate meeting of the Special Committee onthe Western Corridor and development work in Gwadar.
Minister for Planning told the Committee that the priorities of differentenergy related projects have been revisited considering those projects onpriority which will use indigenous energy resources and shifting thosewhich require materials to be imported on back burner.This includes packing up of the Coal Power Project in Rahim Yar Khan of1380 MW because the coal was to be imported and prioritising hydel powerprojects in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The Committee also sought details of different modes of financing fordifferent projects underCPEC so as to be able to better analyse the nature of every project alongwith timelines for work progress done so far and for future development.
The Committee was given details of all five components of CPEC whichinvolves the corridor, energy projects, infrastructure development,industrial production and development of Gwadar. The Committee was toldthat the projects in Gwadar amount to US$780.6 million.
The Minister told the Committee that ML-I (Peshawar to Karachi railwayline) is one of the most strategic components of CPEC and has now been puton high priority. He said for any investment to come, the economicviability and flow of traffic has to be considered.Chairperson Committee noted that the prospects of local job creation andidentifying theframework of cooperation for every project are of high significance. – APP