No hurdle to be tolerated against pace of work on CPEC projects: Asad Umar

Islamabad: Pakistani Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has said the government will not tolerate any hurdle in timely completion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.
Speaking at a news conference here, Umar claimed the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf-led government had enhanced the pace of work on the CPEC projects.

“No work has been slowed down on CPEC projects. We have in fact given it a real push to complete the jobs on time,” he contended.

The major work of the CPEC projects was completed during the PTI-led government, he maintained.
Umar reminded that when the current government took over, not a single Special Economic Zone (SEZ) under CPEC was operational but now two SEZs Allama Iqbal Industrial Zone in Faisalabad and Rashakai in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were operational while another SEZ named Dhabeji would also be functional soon once the Sindh government has selected the contractor for the SEZ.

Agriculture, he added, was an important sector in which Chinese had vast experience who would help Pakistan in strengthening the sector.
“So far eight important initiatives in agriculture sector have been approved under CPEC under which the Chinese would help Pakistanis to develop the sector,” he hoped.
The minister informed test China would help Pakistani farmers in increasing per acre yield of the crops.

Similarly, he said, the Chinese would help in removing foot and mouth disease from the the animals as this disease was the major hurdle in way of exporting Halal meat to the world.
Umar explained that in first phase of CPEC, two major sectors- power and infrastructure, were under main focus.

“Power projects with installed capacity of 3,340 MW were completed during the previous government while 5,864 MW of power projects were being completed during the current government’s tenure,” he said.

Apart from it, he pointed out, “work on another 1824 MW projects had also been started recently that would be completed after the tenure of current government.”
In infrastructure and road sector, he remarked, the current government had so far completed 413 kms of the motorways and highways.

He said Gwdar-Hoshab road was completed by the previous government while the Hakla-Dera Ismail Khan motorway was initiated by the PML-N government who completed 42% of the project while the rest was completed by the current government.
Apart from these two projects, the previous government could not reach to even the initial approval stage of any of the road project on the Western alignment, he added.

The minister stated that the DI Khan-Zhob road (210 km) was approved and a loan application had been submitted while negotiations for loan were in process.
“Similarly contractor for the Zhob-Queta project had been mobilized and PC-1 of the Quetta-Khuzdar road was approved while funding for this project had already been allocated in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2021-22,” he elaborated.

He informed that the current government had completed 67% work of the 110 kms Khuzda-Basima road while it would also complete the rest work soon.
Likewise the 146 km Hoshab-Awaran road project had also been approved and contractor had been mobilized, the minister said.
The Hoshab-Awaran project is an integral part of the CPEC central alignment that connects the port city of Gwadar with Sindh, Umar mentioned.

“In fact, real work on Western Corridor of CPEC was started during PTI government,” he said adding that it did not wait for the Chinese investment and started work on the projects with its own resources under Public Sector Development Program (PSDP).
The minister revealed that the government was also starting work on the connecting roads to the Western Alignment.

Peshawar-DI Khan Motorway project is one of such projects which has recently approved, he added.
“Similarly the 460 kms Karachi-Quetta-Chaman road has also been approved and one of the portion would be completed by the government itself while the other sections of this project would be constructed under Public Private Partnership.

Likewise the government has also accorded approval to other such roads such as Nokundi-Mashkel road, Mashkel-Panjgur road, Awaran-Jhal Jhao road,” Umar stated.
The minister said these connecting roads and the Wester Alignment were being built to take maximum benefit of the opportunities to be open up in Afghanistan after peace and stability prevailed in the country.

Asad Umar observed that after completion of first phase, “we are entering in the second but very important phase of CPEC under which investment would come to a range of sectors including industrialization, agriculture, livestock, science technology, and other social sector development sectors.”