Murad, Vawda agree to work together for K-IV project completion

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When first phase infrastructure would be completed it will help to complete its two other phases
INP
KARACHI
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has urged the federal government to share the escalating cost of K-IV project so that it could be completed in time.
This he said on Monday while talking to Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda here at Cm House. The meeting was attended by Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani and others. The chief minister said that the K-IV phase-I project of 260 MGD was most important for the city. “When its first phase infrastructure would be completed it would help to complete its two other phases,” he said and added therefore the federal government must share its 50 percent cost. Mr Shah said that the cost of the project likely to be around Rs75 billion but finals estimations were being made by the experts. He offered that the federal government could conduct its audit whenever it wanted to do so.
The federal minister, Faisal Vawda said that he would talk to the prime minister and most probably the matter would be solved. “We have discussed this issue in our meetings with prime minister informally but formally it would be discussed very soon,” he said.
The chief minister said that he would need the support of the federal water minister [Mr Vawda] to get additional water approved for K-IV. “It has been our stance that people from all over Pakistan live in Karachi, therefore the provincial governments must share a little portion of their water for this city,” he said and the federal minister assured the chief minister that he would talk to provincial governments for the purpose.
Murad Ali Shah said that another issue is of implementation of water accord. This matter has been taken up in the CCI meeting, therefore the ministry of water resources and Irsa get this matter solved. “The CCI has referred the matter to a committee and the committee would work out some solution,” he said.
French envoy call on CM: The Ambassador of France, Dr Marc Barety called on Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and discussed different investment opportunities in the province.
The chief minister said that the provincial government has decided to reconstruct the drainage system of the city. “This system is very old and has either dilapidated our has capacity issues, therefore construction of the new one is need of hour,” he said urged the ambassador to engage French firms to work with provincial government on PPP mode.
The ambassador said that the French were jointly financing Red Line BRT project and they would love to invest in other projects.
The projects which came under discussion were desalination plant, water supply system, agriculture, wind energy and grid system. The chief minister said that he has recently approved formation of `grid Company’ so that renewable energy produced could be connected with the grid. “The French firms can work with us in the establishment of grid system,” he offered.
The ambassador assured the chief minister that he would invite state and private firms to work with Simndh government. The chief minister nominated chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem to coordinate with French Embassy for moving forward in the investment assignment.