Staff Reporter
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and World Bank Regional Director, South Asia, Johan Roome met here on Friday at CM House and discussed the provincial government’s development priorities and how the bank could support them and also discussed World Bank’a ongoing and pipeline projects.
The others in the bank’s delegation were Lixin Gu, the programme leader and Ms Namoos Zaheer, the senior financial sector specialists. Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro and Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi also attended the meeting. Murad Ali Shah spelling out his priorities said that he had equally focused on the development of urban and rural areas. The urban area needed drinking water and water for industrial requirements while the rural areas were in need of efficient agricultural water system for growth of the agro-sector. He said that the other important project was Urban transport projects under which 21-km Yellow Line Corridor has to be developed with the assistance of the World Bank under the name of Karachi Mobility Project (KMP).
It may be noted that Yellow Line Corridor staring from Dawood Chowrangi to Numasih, 21 km, has three components. They are Urab road project (façade to façade) and development and operationalization of a Bus Rapid Transit System and capacity building and building assistance.
The chief minister said that the World Bank had approved a loan of $382 million in June 2019 and the loan agreement was signed on November 2019.
Giving progress of the project, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem said that Project Director would be appointed very soon. The provincial government was in the process of appointing six procurement specialists. Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi pointed out the provincial government with the world Bank has trained 550 Procurement Officers of Grade BS-17 and six of them would be posted in the project.
The World Bank Regional Director was told that the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the position of director and Procurement Specialists were ready and would be advertised within a month. The account of the project was being opened for which most of the formalities have been completed.
The chief minister said the World Bank-assisted Karachi Water and Sewerage Services Improvement Project is aimed at improving access to safe water services in the city and to increase KWSB’s financial and operational performance. It was pointed out that the loan was signed in December 2019. It is a total $100 billion projects in which $40 million would be provided by IBRD, another $40 million by AIIB and $20 million by Sindh government. Shah said that under the project there would be utility reforms and rehabilitation of water and sewerage network. Talking about progress of the work, he said that KWSB has been reconstituted, steering committee has been established, PD of the project has been posted and World Bank has approved a procurement document of $6 million..
