ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Khusro Bakhtiar today (Saturday) announced an allocation of Rs. 43 billion for the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) ‘Knowledge Academy’, ARY News reported.
Bakhtiar told that the total budget allocation for development equaled Rs.701 billion where Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) will be awarded Rs. 73 billion by the federation.
Expanding upon projects for other provinces, Bakhtiar said: “We plan on bringing development projects worth Rs. 76 billion to Balochistan which has been deemed neglected by many in the past.”
“Projects worth Rs. 48 billion have been finalized for Rs.48 billion.”
Bakhtiar opined that the ML-1 project under the CPEC banner was a massive undertaking and would be dealt with in a step by step basis.
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Speaking about development projects for the biggest city of Pakistan, Bakhtiar said: “Rs. 5 billion has been finalized for the province of Sindh while Karachi has a separate allocation worth Rs. 35 billion to be spent on 45 projects.”
“A sum has also been allocated for the Hyderabad Federal Institute.”
Rs.8 billion have been allocated for various projects in Islamabad, Bakhtiar further revealed.
Upon inquiry about electricity woes of the country, the minister said that transmission had been a major hurdle in providing and distributing power appropriately.
“We have allocated Rs. 80 billion for the power sector while the agriculture sector will get projects worth Rs. 12 billion which is massive compared to the Rs. 1 billion worth of allocations in the past,” said Bakhtiar.
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Bakhtiar also entailed allocations of Rs. 9.5 billion for the ‘Clean Green’ initiative which dealt with countrywide tree plantation drives.
Bakhtiar further revealed an allocation of Rs. 10 billion for skilled youth workers.
Speaking on the projects under development being helmed by the ministry, Bakhtiar said: “We are trying our utmost to finish the projects which are under development within the time frame.
“Work on a road connecting Karachi to Zhob is already underway and soon the road connecting the capital, Islamabad with Quetta will be completed,” claimed Bakhtiar.
Speaking about the targets and expectations of the government after the development is finalized and the projects take off, Bakhtiar elaborated that the government had focused figures of 5.5 trillion in revenues from the projects and their eventual success.
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