KARACHI -The government has planned to initiate a project to rehabilitate 334 villages which were damaged due to Indian firing along the Line of Control in Azad and Jammu Kashmir, The Nation learnt on Tuesday. The project titled 'Pyara Kashmir Programme in Azad Jummu and Kashmir with estimated cost of Rs10.72 billion would be approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on Thursday (September 3, 2009). The meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs and Statistics Senator Shaukat Tarin at cabinet room of the Prime Ministers Secretariat in Islamabad. The representatives from all the provinces and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, the Federal Ministers for Commerce and Communications will also participate in the meeting. The ECNEC will also take up 16 projects of Water sector including construction of 12 small and medium dams in the country. According to a copy of the summary of project available with The Nation, the rehabilitation project would be initiated in 334 villages along the Line of Control in 6 districts including Muzafferabad, Bagh, Poonch, Neelum, Kotli and Bhimber of AJ&K. The project envisages rehabilitation of communities through multi-sectoral interventions and reconstruction of public infrastructure damaged due to Indian firing, the upgradation/ strengthening of existing facilities, increase in households income and improvement of living standards of impoverished populace to enable them to live a respectable life falling within 5 kilometres radius along Line of Control in AJ&K. According to project, the overall strategy of the project was to boost up agriculture production, establish and strengthen community organisations, improve living conditions of the targeted population through provision of social infrastructures, such as water supply, link roads, health centres and, improvement in the status of women and increase in the opportunities for on-farm employment in the project area. The total cost of the project has been reduced to Rs10.72 billion from Rs11.11 billion estimated in original PC-1, while the project will complete in June 2016. Sources said that ECNEC might also give final nod to approach Asian Development Bank and Department for International Development (DFID) to finance the Pyara Kashmir Programme. Meanwhile, ECNEC will also take up a number of projects of water sector including Sukkur Barrage Rehabilitation and Improvement project with Rs2.478 billion, construction of new Khanki Barrage in Punjab with total estimated cost of Rs25 billion (Rs1.5 billion for FY09-10), Sindh On Farm Water Management Project, construction of dams - Satpara dam (revised project), Sabakzai dam (2nd revisec PC-2), Ghabir dam, Nai Gaj dam, Papi dam, Winder dam, Naulong dam, Bara Multipurpose dam, Garuk Storage dam, Pelar Storage dam, Daraban Zam dam and Darawat (Baran) dam. Similarly, the Revival of Karachi Circular Railways as Modern Commuters System with estimated total cost of Rs3 billion (Rs750 million for FY09-10) and procurement/ manufacture of 202 new railway passenger coaches with total cost of Rs16.850 billion are also on the agenda of the ECNEC meeting.