Government of Pakistan(GoP) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday signed two loan agreements including the one for Jalalpur Irrigation Project amounting to $ 274.63 million; and enhancing Public Private Partnership (PPP) investments in Punjab amounting to $100 million (ADB's share) as well as DFID grant administered through ADB amounting to $ 19.6 million. Syed Ghazanfar Abbas Jilani, Secretary, Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and Ms Xiaohong Yang, Country Director, ADB signed the agreements.
The Jalalpur Irrigation Project is aimed at building a new, seasonal (April-October) surface irrigation system covering about 68,263 hectares (ha) of presently low-productive, predominantly rain-fed land in two districts of Jhelum and Khushab in Punjab province. The irrigation system, diverting the flows of the Jhelum River, will comprise an intake structure, a 117-km main canal, 23 distributaries and 10 minor canals with a combined total length of 210km with associated structures, and 485 tertiary-level water courses. Primary beneficiaries of the project will be the farming communities of around 384,000 people in 80 villages in and around the project area.
The project is aligned with the following impact: (i) enhancing growth in agriculture productivity, by increasing the area under cultivation, improving land resources and environment, and by better on-farm water management; and (ii) the project will have increased agricultural productivity.
The project will achieve the outcome in the following phases ie part A - establishing Jalalpur Irrigation Distribution System (JIS); part B - improving water-use capacity and part C improving farm management capacity.
As for Enhancing Public Private Partnership Investments in Punjab, this project will augment the financial resources for Project Development Facility (PDF) and Viability Gap Fund (VGF), and enhance the existing public-private partnership (PPP) framework in Punjab.
The project impact is aligned with private sector investments and an increase in overall employment in Punjab. It is projected to have the following outcome: (i) increase in viable PPP projects that offer Value for Money (VFM); (ii) PDF and VGF resources for PPP projects augmentation; and (iii) PPP institutional capacity enhanced and strengthened.
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