37 road infrastructure projects to be completed during current year: Dr Arbab

December 26, 2011

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ISLAMABAD(SANA): The National Assembly was informed on Thursday that thirty-seven road infrastructure projects will be completed by National Highway Authority during the current fiscal year.

Minister for Communication Dr. Arbab Alamgir Khan told the House during question hour that 2305 million rupees have been spent on repair of Highways and Motorways damaged by the floods.

He said a PC-1 of 23.56 billion rupees has been forwarded to Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for approval to carry out reconstruction of the remaining flood damaged road infrastructure. A loan agreement has also been signed with the Asian Development Bank for the flood emergency reconstruction project.

To a question, the Minister said the Kallar Kahar portion of Motorway will be realigned to avert serious accidents there. He said the National Highway Authority has planned to undertake dualization of Muzaffargarh to Dera Ghazi Khan through public-private partnership from October next.

He said toll connection on motorways is being upgraded and replaced with electronic toll traffic management system. The Minister said that the National Highway and Motorway police has taken a number of measures to ensure safety of passengers road users. Four permanent trauma centres are being constructed on different Motorways.

Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah told the House that five point eight million families living below the poverty line are being given cash grant on regular basis under the Benazir Income Support Programme. He said these beneficiaries are also being given health insurance and a proposal is under consideration to exempt them from the payment of sales and other taxes. He said those living below the poverty line will also be given concessions in electricity bills.

He said a poverty survey has been completed in most parts of the country except FATA and some districts of Southern Punjab. He said the survey in the remaining areas will be completed by March next which will help determine the exact ratio poverty in the country.

Parliamentary Secretary for Information Technology Nawab Liaquat Ali Khan told the House that new technology is being introduced to bolster the agriculture produce and ensure food security. He said nine PSDP projects are being executive to popularize the already developed technologies. He said a number of agreements have been signed with different national and international organization to transfer technologies to the farmers as well as to the public department.

Responding to a supplementary question, Minister for Communication Dr. Arbab Alamgir Khan told the House that work on 133 kilometer Karachi-Hyderabad (M-9) will be started next year. He said negotiations for undertaking this project on Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis with a Malaysian Company is in final stages and will be signed next month.

Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah informed the House that the government has no plans to privatize Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA). He said the present government has always pursued pro-workers’ policies and abolished all black laws introduced by the dictators. He said we have a given a new concept of privatization by giving twelve percent shares to the employees of public sector under the Benazir Stock Option Scheme.

Parliamentary Secretary for Information Technology Nawab Liaquat Ali Khan told the House that sufficient urea is available in the country to meet the requirements of the growers. Responding to a call attention notice moved by Murtaza Javed Abbasi Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah told the House that eighty percent work in the earthquake affected areas of Azad Kashmir and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have been completed. He said twenty-four billion rupees are required to complete the remaining work in the affected areas. Ten billion rupees have been allocated for this purpose during the current financial year while the remaining fourteen billion rupees will be allocated in the next financial year.

He said the government is committed to the complete reconstruction and rehabilitation of quake affected areas and ERRA has been directed to expedite work on the remaining projects.

Responding to another call attention notice Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr. Asim Hussain informed the House that three point five million vehicles are running on CNG in the country.

These are moving bombs and pose threat to the lives of the people. He said during the last few days explosions in the CNG fitted vehicles have claimed the lives of many people. The Minister said the powers of checking the quality of CNG cylinders be delegated to the OGRA and Institute of Hydrocarbon to ensure the quality of the cylinders.

Source: sananews.net