ISLAMABAD             -    Central Development Working Party (CDWP) Thursday approved two projects worth Rs 1.639 billion and referred project for evacuation of power from 2160 MW Dasu Hydropower Project (Stage-1) with the escalated cost of Rs.132.250 billion for the consideration of ECNEC.

Central Development Working Party (CDWP) meeting, presided over by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan, reviewed four projects related to energy, industries & commerce and transport & communications sectors. The meeting was attended by senior officials of Planning Commission & line ministries.

The forum has approved two projects related to transport & communications sections, referred one project related to the energy sector to ECNEC for further deliberations and deferred one project related to industries & commerce. In transport & communications sections, the revised project titled construction of 107 km long Blacktop Road from Lehri to Sangsila worth Rs.841.480 million was also granted approval. The project envisages providing connectivity to the locals with rest of the provincial roads & improve their living.

Similarly, Central Development Working Party approved the project of transport & communications section titled construction of road from Sui to Uch gas fields worth Rs. 797.715 million. The project envisages to provide transport & communication facility, improve interconnectivity of the province, and provide better living. In energy sector, Central Development Working Party discussed the project presented by Power Division namely evacuation of power from 2160 MW Dasu Hydropower Project (Stage-1) with the escalated cost of Rs.132.250 billion for the consideration of ECNEC and referred it to ECNEC for further deliberations. The total cost of the project is Rs.132,249.84 million. The cost of the evacuation of power from 2160 MW Dasu Hydropower Project (Stage-1) escalated by almost Rs 41 billion from Rs 90.832 billion to Rs 132.250 billion. In the previous CDWP meeting, the sponsor of the project was asked to justify the cost escalation and rationalize it. 

The CDWP once again deferred the Pakistan Goes Global project. The cost of Pakistan Goes Global project is Rs 20.515 billion. Beside cost rationalization the project was not cleared due to technical observations, and will discussed in next meeting. A project of the government of Punjab related to Women Income Growth and Self Reliance programme and two position papers were dropped from the agenda of the CDWP meeting.