KARACHI: Sindh government with the assistance of the World Bank has decided to launch a Rs 110 billion housing project for the flood-affected people for which a special unit would be established under the chief secretary.
This emerged on Friday in a meeting between Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and World Bank Country Director Najy Benhassine, who attended the meeting through video link from Islamabad.
The chief minister said that he has already deputed teams to clear water from the flooded towns and villages. “The dewatering process is in progress and hopefully within one and half months it would be pumped out,” he said and added construction of houses for the affected people would begin once the accumulated water is drained.
He said that the winter season was approaching fast and we have to make housing arrangements for the people. He urged the World Bank to finance the housing project.
The chief minister and the World Bank Country Director after thorough discussions and deliberations decided to launch the project costing Rs110 billion for which a company would be established under the control of the chief secretary.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company with the support of the public and private sector would start the construction of the houses for which a survey is in progress.
The chief minister took up another project with the World Bank, saying that the floods have destroyed the road network and drainage system in Karachi. He said it needs to start a project of Rs13 billion to reconstruct the damaged roads of the megacity.
The World Bank committed Rs6 billion for the project and the chief minister said he would arrange the remaining amount of Rs7 billion from other sources.
About repair, and reconstruction of sewerage lines, the CM said that the government has worked out a Rs25 billion scheme to overhaul the sewerage system along with their widening and redesigning.
The World Bank Country Director agreed that it would be financed through the KWSSIP project.
The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, Dr. Azra Pechuho, Manzoor Wassan, Nasir Shah Jam Khan Shoro, Zia Abbas Shah, Rasool Bux Chandio, Murtaza Wahab, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Chairman P&D Hassan Naqvi and others.
The World Bank team that attended the meeting in person included Program Leader Abedalrazaq Khalif, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist Elif Ayhan, Bilal Khalid, Kamran Akbar, Yunziyi Lag, and Farah Yamin.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022