ISLAMABAD: The implementation or execution of federal government’s Rs 739 billion Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP) could face delays as the Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh is of the view that approval of this plan has nothing to do with the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Cabinet that he heads, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
At a recent meeting of the ECC, the finance minister observed that prima facie the summary was not required to be submitted to the ECC rather it should have been presented before relevant forums such as ECNEC and CDWP. ECNEC is headed by Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar, while CDWP is presided over by the Deputy Chairman Planning Commission.
Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, in its summary noted that the recent monsoon heavy rains caused urban flooding and disruption of civic life in Karachi. The government of Pakistan decided to improve the required civic amenities in Karachi in consultation with the Sindh government under the Karachi Transformation Plan. The federal government through NDMA, Ministry of Water Resources, Sindh Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (SIDCL) and Pakistan Railways, intended to undertake projects worth around Rs 739 billion over the next three years through Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), Public Private Partnership (PPP), Supreme Court Fund and Foreign Funding (if required) for Karachi infrastructure improvement in the identified areas.
The major projects in these categories are: (i) Greater Karachi Water Supply Project (K-IV);(ii) Temporary settlement of Locally Displaced Persons (LDPs) construction of flats for LDPs, clearance of rivers/ Nullahs, roadsastride Nullah banks and development of malls, education and health facilities on the cleared rehabilitated Nullahs;(iii) completion of Green Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) System;(iv) Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) and ;(v) Double Railway Line freight corridor from ICPT to Pipri.
Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives further noted that the funding and execution of the temporary and permanent settlement for LDPs will be carried out by the federal government/NDMA and provision of land would be the responsibility of the Sindh government. Removal of encroachments along the nullahs and rivers included in the scope of the plan will be the responsibility of the Sindh government.
Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives requested the ECC for approval of the proposed framework as indicated in Para-3 of the summary and also approve the following: (i) the on-going Greater Karachi Water Supply Project (K-IV) will be further funded and executed by the federal government through Ministry of Water Resources as the Sponsoring Agency and Wapda as the executing agency;(ii) Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) and Double Railway Line Freight Corridor from KPT to Pipri will be executed and operated by Ministry of Railways/Pakistan Railways;(iii) NDMA will undertake the projects indicated in the Plan including temporary and permanent settlement of LDPs, revival of rivers and nullahs, roads astride nullahs and Development of areas astride cleared/ rehabilitated nullahs;(iv) NDMA will re-appropriate an amount of Rs 7 billion out of its existing resources for Karachi Transformation Plan;(v) Law and Justice Division will request the Supreme Court of Pakistan to allow utilization of Supreme Court Fund (Bahria Town Settlement) for projects under the Karachi Transformation Plan;(vi) Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives will coordinate, facilitate and implement the Plan and take appropriate steps including arrangement, demand and re-appropriation of PSDP funds and make changes in the plan that are required to achieve the objectives;( vii) a steering committee led by Najeeb Haroon, PTI MNA, has been constituted for overseeing implementation of the Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP).
A dedicated Monitoring & Evaluation team in MoPD&SI will be formed under Member (Implementation & Monitoring), Planning Commission to assist the Steering Committee and; (viii) the executing ministries/organizations will be responsible for observing legal codal formalities and audit of the projects.
Ministry of Water Resources apprised that the task for removal of encroachments along the nullahs and rivers included in the scope of the plan would be the responsibility of the government of Sindh; NDMA had stated that as per a discussion held during the meeting at Karachi, temporary settlement of Locally Displaced Persons (LDPs) would be the responsibility of government of Sindh. NDMA also stated that it was decided in a meeting at Karachi that construction of flats for permanent settlement of LDPs would be undertaken by Naya Pakistan Housing Authority. Finance Division had stated that alternate financing in the event of non-availability of funds from the Supreme Court of Pakistan may be met by Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives (MoPD&SI) by way of re-appropriation or a technical supplementary grant as the case may be from PSDP. Finance Division further stated that the prime responsibility for securing necessary funding for each component included in Karachi Transformation Plan for current and subsequent financial years rested with MoPD&SI along with allocations for projects under PPP mode.
During the ensuing discussion, the chairman ECC observed that prima facie the summary was not required to be submitted to the ECC, rather it should have been presented before relevant forums, i.e., ECNEC, CDWP etc.
He asked Secretary, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives (PD&SI) to specifically identify what kind of approval was required from ECC. Secretary, PD&SI replied that Planning Division was simultaneously in the process for obtaining approvals from relevant forums. However, endorsement of ECC in principle, was being requested on the proposed framework for Karachi Transformation Plan before submission of the summary thereon to the Cabinet as this was a large scale package/ project.
Minister for Railways raised concern over the proposal regarding assigning the task of operation of KCR to Ministry of Railways. He stated that the Ministry was happy to operationalize the infrastructure for operations. However, responsibility of regular operation of the KCR must be with the provincial/local government as this was mass transit function, which could not be run by the federal government.
After detailed discussions, the ECC approved the concept of the plan, but also observed that various proposals included in the summary required approvals from various forums. Therefore, all such approvals must be obtained from relevant forums wherever required, after completing all codal formalities.
The ECC also noted that operation of the KCR was not the responsibility of Ministry of Railways being a mass transit function under the local government. Therefore, necessary modification may be made in the proposal accordingly before presenting the same to the relevant forum.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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