No special package for Karachi mega projects in budget
By
Azfar-ul-Ashfaque
KARACHI: Like the federal government, the Sindh government has also not announced any special development package for Karachi in its budget for 2014-15.
Although Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah announced in his budget speech an allocation of Rs42 billion for ‘Karachi based schemes in ADP 2014-15’, most of the funds are to be spent on the ongoing development schemes that include water supply and sanitation, buildings, roads, water and drainage, energy, education, health, environment, social welfare, information technology and local government schemes.
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The CM said in his budget speech that the Sindh government was “giving prime importance to Karachi in its development portfolio”, but this was not enough as the city also required a special package from the federal government. “I strongly urge the federal government to review its fiscal approach to Karachi,” he said.
However, the provincial government itself gave separate special development packages for Karachi’s six districts but it did not reveal on what basis it made unequal allocations for these districts.
The budget documents say that total Rs1.2bn is allocated for Karachi’s Malir, West and South districts — Rs400 million each — and total Rs300m allocated for the Central, East and Korangi districts — Rs100m each. Besides, the allocation for Lyari, which falls within the South district and is traditionally considered a Pakistan Peoples Party stronghold, in the next fiscal year is Rs458m — all for ongoing schemes that were part of previous budgets.
In addition to the above packages, around Rs1.05bn is allocated for a Karachi development package. The funds are to be used by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation for various ongoing projects, including construction of flyovers, roads, etc. An amount of Rs55m is allocated for only one new scheme — improvement of a three-kilometre road from Safora Chowrangi to Saadi Town.
However, the fate of Karachi’s mega projects — Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme K-IV, Greater Karachi Sewage Treatment Plan S-III, Karachi Mass Transit System, etc, is still hanging in the balance, as the Sindh CM blamed the federal government for a delay and said in his budget speech that “the mega projects already launched are suffering setbacks due to lack of focus by the federal government”.
On its part, the Sindh government allocated only Rs1bn for the Rs7.98bn S-III project and Rs849m for the Rs25.552bn K-IV project in the next financial year.
The CM said that the federal government had to contribute Rs3.99bn for the S-III project, but it only allocated Rs200m for this project when he forced the authorities to do so.
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Similarly, he said, the K-IV project was approved by Ecnec for provision of additional 260MGD water to the residents of Karachi and the provincial government would pay 50 per cent of its total cost. The CM added that the federal government initially had not allocated any amount for this project, but on his insistence they allocated Rs200m in the budget.
About the transport sector, he said that his government would launch two lines — green and yellow — for the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) projects. The yellow line project will be carried out on a public-private partnership basis. The yellow line will be from Korangi 8000 Road towards the centre of the city, he added.
He said that Rs3bn was allocated in the ADP for green line project, which would be completed in two years and the balance allocation would be made in the financial year 2015-16.
Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2014
