By Shakeel Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said on Thursday that Rs 400 billion construction projects would be initiated by the end of December this year.
Addressing a news conference along with Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar, he said a mega project for the construction of houses and apartments worth Rs145 billion would be started by October while many more would follow the suit. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan was giving special attention to the uplift of the construction sector as this had the potential to revive the national economy as well as realize the dream of disadvantaged segments of the society to own their houses.
Shibli Faraz said the people building five Marla houses would be given loans on 5 percent markup whereas for the ten Marla houses, the mark up rate will be 7 percent. He said that the schedule for payment of installments would be within the reach of the low income groups.
Shibli Faraz said the Prime Minister today chaired a meeting of the National Coordination Committee on Housing, Construction and Development to personally monitor the situation and ensure steps to remove impediments in launching housing projects. He said that the meeting was attended by the country’s prominent builders and developers. The meeting discussed several proposals to uplift the sector including holding international road shows for construction related projects to attract investment from expatriates.
The meeting discussed in details all issues ranging from taxes and maps and utilities. Mechanism for lending to the construction sector was also discussed, he informed. The objective of the meetings of the National Coordinating Committee was to maintain liaison with all stakeholders, he added. He said the Prime Minister has decided to hold the meeting of the committee every two or three days keeping in view the importance of the sector. The minister said the focus of the Prime Minister’s policies were the middle class and poor segments of the society.
Shibli said that recent auctions of Capital Development Authority fetched more than expected returns which were the manifestation that the environment for the construction sector in the country was conducive. He said the builders and developers and general public should take advantage of the government’s construction policy by December. A one-window operation system, he said was devised to reduce the time required for clearance of the documents.
Shibli Faraz said the government has asked the banks to dedicate about Rs 330 billion of their lending portfolio for the construction industry. So far the banks’ lending for the housing sector was less than one percent whereas in neighbouring India, this ratio was over 27 per cent.
An increase in banks lending would revolutionize the housing industry as so far there was no concept of a mortgage in Pakistan, he remarked. Shibli Faraz said that the people of Pakistan did not suffer much as compared to many other countries. The outbreak of coronavirus has made the government more determined to save the people from problems, he concluded.
Meanwhile, Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) Thursday approved four projects worth Rs 289 billion for construction of national highways in different parts of the country. The ECNEC meeting chaired by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh approved the projects including construction of 306-km long Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway at a cost of Rs 165.679 billion, construction of 47.55-km Khyber Pass Economic Corridor (KPEC) Project at a cost of Rs 77.907 billion, construction of 146-km Hoshab-Awaran-Khuzdar Section of M-8 Project, and land acquisition for Swat Motorway Phase-II at a cost of Rs 20 billion.
The Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway project would be completed on Built Operate Transfer (BOT) basis envisages construction of 306 km long, 6-lane wide, access-controlled motorway, according to press statement issued by the finance ministry.
The motorway is proposed to be a high speed toll road facility for efficient and safe transportation, which would start from Hyderabad (end of Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway M-9) and terminates at Naro Canal (Start of Sukkur-Multan Motorway M-5).
The project alignment passes through Jamshoro, Tando Adam, Hala, Shahdadpur, Nawabshah, Moro, Dadu, Naushahro Feroze, Mehrabpur, Rasoolpur, Larakana, Khairpur and Sukkur. The Khyber Pass Economic Corridor (KPEC) project consists of two components involving construction of Peshawar-Torkham Motorway and link road connecting motorway to Badabher (N-55) intersecting N-5 between Chamkani and Jhagra (55km) in length. The project envisages construction of 47.55 km long, 4 lane wide, dual carriageway high-speed access controlled Motorway from Peshawar to Torkham.
Peshawar Torkham Motorway is part of the Peshawar-Jalalabad-Kabul Motorway Project. The scope of work also includes construction of bridges, interchanges, flyover, subways, underpasses, box culverts, cattle creep, road furniture, drainage works, and retaining walls alongwith allied facilities. Hoshab-Awaran-Khuzdar Section of M-8 Project envisages construction of 146 km long road from Hoshab to Awarn . There exists motorable track from Hoshab to Awaran under administrative control of C&W Department, government of Balochistan. Existing route is mostly followed while finalizing the alignment.
The project road starts from Hoshab and traverses through Qila Darwesh, Ashal, Dandar, Sahar Kalat, Gorari, Laljan, Duddar, Razai, Nurdin, Madak, Malar, Labach Dargo and finally terminaters at Awaran. The scope of works also includes relocation of utilities and acquisition of 29,200 kanals of land for 100m of Right of Way (ROW).
The Swat Motorway Phase-II project envisages acquisition of 10,000 kanals of land for construction of 04-lane motorway 79.69 km in length from Chakdara to Fatehpur as Phase-II extension of the Swat Motorway. The motorway is proposed as a high speed toll road facility for efficient and safe transportation. The Right of Way proposed for the motorway is 50m, the statement added.
