PTI govt drops Chitral-Shandur road project from PSDP

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government has dropped all CPEC projects not approved by Planning Commission from the list of the public sector development programme (PSDP) for FY19.

The mega projects that have faced the axe include Zhob-Kuchlak road, Shandur-Chitral road, land acquisition and upgradation of 50 to 300-bed hospital at Gwadar, construction of the northern bypass.

Also, Gwadar smart environment, sanitation system and landfill, land acquisition for Gwadar port master plan under Maritime Affairs Division and feasibility study (PC-II) for laying of new rail from Havelian to Pakistan-China border has been axed.

In the original budget announced by the previous PML-N government for FY19, the CPEC projects allocation was earmarked at Rs172 billion as stated by the finance ministry.

Although, the planning ministry had estimated Rs191 billion in the green PSDP book for the current financial year.

According to Secretary Ministry of Planning Zafar Hasan, the rationalization exercise of PSDP had plugged the gaps between amounts allocated by the finance ministry in the pink book and the planning ministry in green book for FY19.

In the revised federal PSDP FY2018 of Rs675 billion, a major share of resources was reserved for infrastructure lifts.

The government has reserved Rs406.631 billion for infrastructure development projects.

From the entire allocation of Rs406.631 billion for development projects, the government has reserved Rs72.685 billion for energy, Rs250.837 billion for transport and communication, Rs64.244 billion for water sector and Rs18.866 billion for physical planning and housing.

And the government has reserved Rs62 billion for the social sector, Rs7.92 billion for science and information technology, Rs61.5 billion for special areas, Rs3.029 billion for production sectors and Rs11.755 billion for governance. –The News