ISLAMABAD - The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) Thursday considered 64 projects costing Rs 236 billion including foreign aid of Rs 107 billion. The CDWP meeting was held Thursday under the chairmanship of Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Dr. Nadeem ul Haque. According to the details, out of the 64 projects, 37 projects are related to infrastructure sector costing Rs 187 billion, 19 projects in social sector of Rs 44 billion and 8 projects worth Rs 5 billion of Food & Agriculture and Industry sector, were approved/ recommended by the CDWP. The CDWP approved the 11 projects of energy sector costing Rs 62 billion. The projects included Allai Khwar Hydropower Project (121 MW) (Revised PC-I) (Rs 13 billion), Augmentation of 500 / 132 KV & 220 / 132 KV Transformers in NTDC System (Rs 4 billion) and an important project Natural Gas Efficiency Project costing Rs 37 billion The said project will be implemented with financial assistance of World Bank with main objective to reduce gas losses in the SSGC system through i) Unaccounted for Gas (UFG) Reduction programme, ii) Appliance Efficiency Pilot project and iii) Technical Assistance for improving skills and trainings at SSGCL Gas Training Institute. Meanwhile 12 projects of road and rail sector costing Rs 75 billion were approved. The projects included Doubling of Track on Shahdara Bagh to Lalamusa (126 KM) (Rs 14 billion), Doubling of Track from Khanewal to Raiwind (Rs 13 billion), and Doubling of Track on Shahdra Bagh to Faisalabad (Rs 11 billion), etc. Similarly seven projects of water sector costing Rs 47 billion were recommended. According to the details the following are the projects Lower Bari Doab Canal Improvement Project (Revised) (Rs 30.0 billion), Punjab Irrigation System Improvement Project (Rs 9.3 billion), and Rehabilitation / Reconstruction of Flood Damages in Balochistan Sector Irrigation & Power (Rs 5 billion) etc. In Physical Planning & Housing, five projects costing Rs 3.0 billion of PP&H sector were approved by CDWP on Thursday mainly Establishment of Statistics Training and Research Institute at Lahore costing Rs 662 million and construction of Anti Narcotics Force Academy at Islamabad costing Rs 455 million. Meanwhile in Higher education, five projects of HEC costing about Rs 4.5 billion were approved by the CDWP mainly included upgradation of University College of Engineering & Technology Mirpur into Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST), Mirpur costing Rs 1.9 billion and Development of Infrastructure at Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Uthal Balochistan (Rs 1 billion) etc Similarly an important vertical project of Health sector titled Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) (Revised) (Rs 25.0 billion). Meanwhile to curb the cyber crime in the country, a project of Information Technology National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes (NRCC) (Phase-II) (Rs 479 million) was also approved today. In Agriculture & Industry sector, important projects of Agriculture like Community Development Project for rehabilitation of salt affected and water logged lands (Revised PC-I) costing Rs 795 million), Infrastructure Development of Industrial Estate, Larkana costing Rs 2.4 billion and Establishment of Apple & other Fruits Processing Complex at Quetta costing Rs 495 million etc were approved / recommended.