Centre has deleted Sukkur Barrage, 35 other schemes from PSDP: Murad

Sindh’s chief minister has said that the federal government has deleted 36 important schemes of the province from its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), though most of them are foreign-aided projects.

“This is injustice with the people of Sindh and this will further develop a sense of deprivation and isolation among the people of the province,” Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Tuesday.

He presided over a preparatory meeting for the National Economic Council (NEC) at the CM House. The NEC meeting is scheduled to be held in Islamabad on Wednesday. Shah and Sindh’s representative Nisar Ahmed Khuhro will attend the meeting. The CM said that the estimated cost of the entire PSDP portfolio, both the existing and the new, was Rs8 trillion, in which the cost of Sindh-based schemes came to around Rs540 billion.

“It means Sindh has been given only a seven per cent share in the PSDP,” he said, and termed it an injustice with the people of the province.

Shah said the federal government had about 36 schemes having a cost of over Rs51 billion, including the foreign aid component pertaining to Sindh in water, roads and other sectors, but these schemes had been arbitrarily deleted from the PSDP after its revision in September last year.

The schemes deleted from the PSDP include the rehabilitation and modernisation of the Sukkur Barrage. It is a World Bank-funded project, in which 80 per cent of the funds would be financed by the WB while the federal and Sindh governments each would bear 10 per cent of the share.

The deleted schemes include the construction of new bridges with approach roads over the Indus River between Sukkur and Rohri. This project was announced by the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif during his visit to Sukkur.

The other deleted schemes are the construction of an 88km Mirpurkhas-Umerkot section, the construction of the Southern Bypass Hyderabad and the rehabilitation of the existing 200km carriageway from Sehwan to Ratodero.

The deleted schemes include the lining of the KB Feeder’s upper canal for supplying water to Karachi. Its cost would be shared by the federal and provincial governments on a 50-50 basis. The construction of the feeder canal to the Manchar Lake to eradicate contamination is also on a 50-50 sharing basis.

The CM said the Jamshoro to Sehwan road section is a classic case of mismanagement. It has three roads. “The Sindh government has provided Rs7 billion to get this important road completed, but unfortunately, there is no progress on it.”

He added that he would request the federal government to instruct the National Highway Authority (NHA) to complete it or return the Sindh government’s Rs7 billion so that the provincial government could complete it from its own resources.

Shah said the federal government had drastically reduced the overall allocation of schemes reflected in the finance division portfolio that were being executed by the provincial governments.

He said the Sindh government’s portfolio had been curtailed, and many schemes that were ongoing and yet to be completed have been deleted. “There are now only five ongoing schemes with an estimated cost of Rs23.9 billion, against which only Rs1.77 billion has been allocated for the next financial year.”

He pointed out that the finance division’s overall allocation for the PSDP was Rs36.61 billion: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata have been given 75 per cent of the funds, Balochistan 15 per cent, Sindh 4.85 per cent and Punjab four per cent.

Deleted projects

The S-III project was revised by Ecnec from Rs7.982 billion to Rs36.117 billion on February 7, 2018. The cost of the project was originally shared by the Sindh and federal governments on a 50-50 basis, but the Centre did not agree to share 50 per cent of the revised cost.

The total expenditure against the federal share until June 2018 is Rs3.129 billion. The federal government allocated the balance share of the original cost in the PSDP, which is Rs862 million and released only Rs344 million. An amount of Rs517 million is also pending against the federal government’s original committed share.

The project of construction of roads in Hyderabad District was cleared by the CDWP on March 18, 2010. The scheme was completed through bridge financing by the Sindh government in 2011-12. An amount of Rs175.864 million is pending towards the federal government.

The project for lining of 109 selected channels of 860 miles was approved at the cost of Rs13.828 billion. The expenditure of Rs8.069 billion stands incurred until June 2018. There is a throw-forward of Rs5.032 billion.

The project for the rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage system of Sindh was approved at Rs16.795 billion. An amount of Rs13.386 billion has been incurred until April 30, 2019, leaving a throw-forward of Rs3.409 billion.

The CM said that a liability of over Rs8 billion has been left out against the committed projects with implications on these schemes. Therefore, the federal government should release the amount to the provincial government.

Shah said the NHA-executed schemes, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, comprised 78 projects with an estimated cost of Rs2 trillion, against which Rs156 billion has been allocated.

He added that overall, Sindh’s portfolio under communications (NHA) comprised six schemes with a total estimated cost of Rs74 billion, and the allocation was only Rs7.7 billion for 2019-20.

He said that the overall share of this portfolio comes to 4.9 per cent of the total NHA portfolio, adding that Punjab has 21 schemes and their share comes to 34 per cent, KP’s share comes to 21 per cent and Balochistan’s share is 23 per cent.

The total number of schemes under the water sector is 97, with a total estimated cost of Rs2.34 trillion. The allocation for 2019-20 is Rs84.7 billion.

The CM said Sindh’s overall portfolio in the water sector has a total cost of Rs175.59 billion, having an allocation of Rs7.02 billion for nine schemes under the PSDP.

“In terms of percentage of the total cost of the Water Sector, it comes to seven per cent of the total water sector cost of Rs2.3 trillion.”

Shah said Sindh’s portfolio with a total cost of Rs175 billion was also because of the two major schemes of RBOD II and I; which together have an estimated cost of Rs54.56 billion and Rs17.5 billion.

“These projects in principle should be considered under the national projects portfolio, as these schemes are for carrying effluent from Balochistan that leave adverse environmental impact, since it passes across the province.”

The RBOD II project was revised on July 26, 2017 on the orders of the Supreme Court at the total cost of Rs61.985 billion, with the completion date of June 2020.

The share of the federal government is Rs54.985 billion and the estimated expenditure until June 2019 would be Rs37.017 billion, leaving a throw-forward of Rs17.968 billion.

The CM said 2019-20 would be the last year for the completion of RBOD-II, so the federal government was required to provide Rs17.968 billion to complete the project by June 2020.