Staff Reporter Islamabad
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Mr. Shaukat Tarin, chaired the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting on Wednesday.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Mr. Asad Umer, Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Makhdoom Khusroo Bakhtiar, Federal Secretaries and other senior officers from Federal as well as Provincial Government participated in the meeting.
ECNEC approved Sialkot (Sambrial) – Kharian Motorway project submitted by Ministry of Communication with total project cost Rs.43,382.552 Million, along with directions to NHA to present progress on development of business model to ECC.
The project envisages construction of 69-km long, 04-lane wide Sambrial- Kharian Motorway with structures to be constructed for 06 lanes. Forum especially lauded the efforts of Planning Commission and M/o Communication for finalizing this project on PPP basis.
ECNEC also gave approval to the New Gwadar International Airport(NGIA) 2nd revised project worth of 51,298.175 Million rupees.
The 2nd revised project envisages construction of New Gwadar International Airport (NGIA) along with allied facilities over a piece of land already acquired.
NGIA will replace the existing airport at Gwadar which has small terminal building with limited capacity. The new airport will be suitable for bigger aircrafts like Airbus A-380 and Boeing -747 & 777 etc for international and domestic services.
ECNEC also approved the project of Ministry of Energy on ADB Funded Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in IESCO at a cost of $455.5 million, with directives to start the project without any delay as a pilot project and include other electric supplying companies.
The project envisages enhancing load control and loading management up to the interface of the electricity distribution system operated by the distribution companies (DISCOs).