KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and World Bank delegationhave, in principle, agreed to start $ 2 billion projects for Karachi tomake the city one of the most developed and beautiful cities of the world.
It was decided in a meeting of the CM Sindh with the World Bank 16-memberteam was led by Country Director Patchamuthu Illangovan, said a statementon Monday.
The projects which came under discussion and were agreed to start includeKarachi Urban Mobility Project (KUMP) of $400 million dollar; Karachi Water& Sewerage Services Improvement Project (KWSSIP) of $1.6 billion andCompetitive and Livable City of Karachi (CLCK) of $230 million.
The other delegates were Senior Director Ede Jorge Ijjasz- Vasquez,Practice Manager David Seth Warren, Operation manager Melinda Good, ProgramLeader Lixin Gu, Transport Specialist Said Dahdah, Sr Urban Economist Ms.Yoonhee Kim, Sr Water Management Specialist Andreas Rohde and others.
The chief minister was supported by Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani,Excise Minister Mukesh Chawla, Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah, AdvisorMurtaza Wahab, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary SajidJamal Abro, concerned provincial secretaries, MD Water board and others.
Karachi Urban Mobility Project (KUMP) is aimed at improving urban mobility,especially for women accessibility and road safety.
Under this project BRT Yellow Line corridor including infrastructurerehabilitation and BRTS system to be constructed.
The World Bank experts would also undertake capacity building of Sindh MassTransit Authority (SMTA) to manage all the BRT system.
The World Bank would finance rehabilitation of the roads, footpaths anddevelop other relevant infrastructure.
The chief minister discussed this project with the World Bank team and saidthat we are working on KCR project but even then there is a dire need ofUrban transport system of BRT.
The World Bank Country Director agreed to take up the project and urged thetransport department to furnish all the relevant documents, PC-I and otherlayout plan with them so that it could be sent for final approval fromtheir board.
Syed Murad Ali Shah said that he wants to establish Karchi Water andSewerage Board (KW&SB) as most efficient, effective and service deliveryinstitution. There is a need of restructuring of water and rehabilitationof its entire water supply and drainage system and to achieve this objectthe support of the World Bank was required, the chief minister said.
The World Bank has studied the problems of water on the request of Sindhgovernment and have envisaged a plan under the name of KWSSIP.
The purpose of the program is to provide safe and reliable water andsewerage services and encourage private sector investments on water supplyand waste water treatment.
The World Bank experts said that reforms in water board were required inthree sectors include raising operational capacity for safe, sustainableand equitable water service deliver to all customers.
The second one is restoration of Water Board’s financial stability andthird reform was required in governance and institutional reforms in thewater board.
The Sindh government and the World Bank agreed to approve the project forwhich all legal formalities would be completed within a month and theproject would be sent to the World Bank board for approval.
The chief minister formed a committee under Chairman P&D Mohammad, MD WaterBoard Asadullah Khan and PD K-IV Asad Zamin to meet all the requirement ofthe world bank and submit them PC-I and other documents.
The Sindh Chief Minister said that under Competitive and Livable City ofKarachi (CLCK) project he wants to enhance urban management and servicedelivery of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and all DMCs of the city.
The World Bank Country Illangovan said that his team has already worked onthe project and have prepared a design features for performance based blockgrant.
The plan calls for incentivizing institutional performance and improvementfor KMC and DMcs.
The performance-based block grants to be used for capital investmentprogram for KMC and DMCs and the Local government department would also beprovided technical support.
Institutional reforms would be introduced in KMC and in all six DMCs.Property Tax survey would be conducted and all the payments, includingsalaries, receipts of local taxes, property tax and payment of bills etcwould be made electronically.
All the manual system would be replaced with digital/electronic system.
The project was approved in principal and would be placed in the
World Bank board for final approval.
The chief minister and the world bank set deadlines for completion ofdocumentation for all the three projects as for CLICK by early April,KWSSIP by the end of March and KUMP by end of March.