CM, ADB country head agree on expediting Red Line project

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Asian Development Bank (ADB) Country Director Emma Fan held a meeting at the CM House to discuss the ADB’s $1.3 billion development portfolio. Shah highlighted his government’s development priorities, and explored opportunities to enhance collaboration between the ADB and the provincial government.

The meeting also agreed to speed up the ongoing work on the Red Line bus rapid transit (BRT) project. Shah said the project would contribute to developing a sustainable urban transport system in Karachi through the delivery of a BRT corridor, focusing on accessibility and people’s mobility needs.

He said that to improve the quality of public transport in the city, the 26.6km corridor and the associated facilities would be constructed, which would directly benefit 1.5 million people. He also said the project is Pakistan’s first BRT operating on bio-methane produced from cattle waste, improving the city’s environment and financial sustainability. It was pointed out that the physical progress of Lot-I is at 18.37 per cent, and that of Lot-II at 16.06 per cent.

Education project

The meeting also discussed the Sindh Secondary Education Improvement Project (SSEIP), under which 160 secondary school blocks will be constructed at the existing primary schools across 10 districts of the province to bridge the gap between primary and post-primary education.

The Rs13.1 billion project is also aimed at improving teaching capacity in five key subjects — English, mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics — and strengthen the secondary education examination system through an optical mark recognition (OMR) machine to enhance the quality of secondary education.

The meeting was informed that all civil works contracts for 117 schools have been awarded (December 2023 to April-May 2024), and construction is under way. Shah said training for 2,630 teachers has been planned for early December.

He said training manuals, examination reforms, student-learning-outcomes-based exams, and workshops for 400 examiners and paper setters in five key subjects have been completed, and the delivery of OMR equipment has been accomplished.

Road rehabilitation

The meeting also discussed the Emergency Flood Assistance Project (EFAP), under which September 2022’s flood- and rain-affected roads are being taken up for improvement and rehabilitation in 18 districts of the province to facilitate the affected people of numerous villages and towns to access markets, educational centres, health facilities, etc.

Shah said special design techniques are being adopted to make them climate-resilient, supporting rehabilitation of the damaged roads with the best possible measures under the Rs48.4 billion project.

He said construction activities on all 17 awarded road packages are being carried out. Most of the road packages are at the water-bound macadam stage, he added. He also said fortnightly meetings are being held with project management consultants (PMCs) and contractors to expedite the physical activities, ensuring that the quality and quantities are achieved in accordance with the specifications and timelines.

He added that according to the PMCs’ terms of reference, the reliability, availability, maintainability & safety (RAMS) setup is being established at the EFAP project director’s office in Hyderabad, and accordingly, work on upgrading the RAMS data would be initiated.

Housing project

Discussing the Sindh Flood Emergency Housing Reconstruction Project, Shah said the ADB financing is supporting the beneficiary-driven reconstruction of at least 250,000 multi-hazard resilient houses.

“It will also support community-led construction of multi-hazard resilient and environment-responsive infrastructure, such as WASH and toilet facilities for at least 100,000 houses. Approximately 1,500,000 and 600,000 people will benefit from the reconstruction of housing and improved community infrastructure respectively.”

Emma also assured Shah that the ADB would support the provincial government in setting up the treatment plant TP-IV. Shah directed Planning & Development Chairman Najam Shah to provide the necessary paperwork to her within the next week.

The CM and the ADB country head agreed to conduct a study on the infrastructural gaps of Hyderabad to ascertain the requirements in the road network, the drainage and water supply systems, and flyovers and underpasses, so proper projects can be developed to fill the gaps.