Infrastructure Development in Pakistan

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[Sulman Badshah]

KPK: Under-construction Kundal Dam in District Swabi, scheduled for completion in 2015. The Dam, being built by the KPK Provincial Government at a cost of Rs. 810 million since 2013, will have a storage capacity of 56,000 cusecs flood water. Two canals will be taken out from the Dam for irrigating 5,000 acres.

 

[Sulman Badshah]

LSM output up 3.19pc in 2 months, 5.27pc in August

ISLAMABAD: The country's large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector has witnessed growth of 3.19 percent during the first two months of current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The provisional Quantum Index Numbers (QIM) of large scale manufacturing industries was recorded at 113.46 points during July-August (2014-15) against 109.96 points during July-August (2013-14), according the data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The highest growth of 2.50 percent was witnessed in the indices provided by Provincial Bureaus of Statistics (PBoS) followed by the indices of Ministry of Industries that increased by 0.76 percent while the indices monitored by Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) witnessed nominal negative growth of 0.07 percent.

On year-to-year basis, the industrial growth increased by 5.27 percent during August 2014 as compared to August 2013 while on month-to-month basis,the industrial growth increased by 2.16 percent during August 2014 when compared to growth of July 2014, the data revealed.

Meanwhile, the major sectors that showed growth during July-August (2014- 15) included textile (1.32 percent), food beverages and tobacco (9.61 percent), paper and board (1.03 percent), fertilizers (0.53 percent) and electronics (12.04 percent).

Similarly, the production of leather products went up by 2.95 percent, iron and steel products by 10.53 percent, rubber products by 15.73 percent, chemicals by 8.86 percent and non-metallic mineral products by 1.07 percent.

The production of engineering products also witnessed positive growth of 17.37 percent, pharmaceuticals by 4.49 percent and automobiles by 5.23 percent.

On the other hand, the LSM industries that witnessed negative growth, included wood products and coke and petroleum products, production of which decreased by 75.13 percent and 0.67 percent respectively during the period under review.

The provisional QIM is being computed on the basis of the latest production data of 112 items received from sources including Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC), Ministry of Industries and Production (MoIP) and Provincial Bureaus of Statistics (PBoS).

OCAC provides data of 11 items, MoIP of 36 items while PBoS proved data of remaining 65 items.

Tax collection, GDP growth rate and foreign exchange reserves and industrial growth were moving up, while the inflation was going down.

 

[Sulman Badshah]

Halal meat export reaches US $ 230.2mn mark



ISLAMABAD: The export of halal meat has increased to US$ 230.2 million during fiscal year 2013-14 from US $ 211.1 million in same period last year, showing an increase of 9 percent.

The export of other food touched US$ 4393.7 million mark as the export value of some food items like rice, fish, fruits and oil seed has increased whereas export value of vegetables, tobacco, wheat, sugar, spices witnessed decrease.

As per break-up issued by Commerce Division in 2012-13 halal meat fetched US $ 211.1 million in 2012-13 and US $ 230.2 million in 2013-14.

Similarly, other food contributed US $ 4550.9 million in 2012-13 and US $ 4393.7 million in 2013-14.

Moreover, the government has taken steps to increase the export of meat and food items which included ban on commercial export of live animals from the country w.e.f. October 1, 2014 to enhance export of meat.

Pakistan Horticulture Development & Export Company (PHDEC), established with a mandate of work for production, development and export of horticulture products has conducted trainings/workshops/seminars for the capacity building of growers, processors and exporters.

It provided support to horticulture industry for country specific Sanitary & Phytosanitary (SPS) compliance and established Hot Water Treatment Plant at Karachi on Public Private Partnership basis and Irradiation Treatment Facility at Lahore in collaboration with Atomic Energy Commission.

The government also announced some incentives under Strategic Trade Policy Framework (STPF) 2012-15 which included 50 percent subsidy on cost of plant and machinery for processing of meat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), FATA and Balochistan.

The other incentive was mark-up support of 2 percent on prevailing Long Term Financing Scheme for future import/purchase of machinery and also mark-up support of 1.5 percent on Export Finance Scheme (EFS) to inter-alia processed food, meat and meat preparation.

Up-gradation of rice inspection labs and subsidizing 50 percent cost of plant and machinery for establishing processing plants for meat, fruits, vegetables, dates etc.

 

[JasonZhou]

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[Sulman Badshah]

Foreign investment: Chinese group makes first installment for cotton mills

"It might be possible that they have problems with MTM to withdraw agreements of partnership, but Shandong was directly involved with FIEDMC," FIEDMC CEO Aamir Saleemi. PHOTO: AFP

FAISALABAD: Chinese textile giant Shandong Ruyi Technology Group Limited has paid the first installment to the Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company (FIEDMC) in order to start construction work for Pakistan’s largest cotton-spinning mills.

With a total investment of $2 billion, the mills would consist of 600,000 spindles, generating thousands of jobs in the textile hub of the country.

A delegation from the International Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has visited the project site and approved the investment plan for the Faisalabad Shandong Ruyi Textile Park, according to FIEDMC officials.

FIEDMC CEO Aamir Saleemi said there were rumours that China was planning to reverse the investment plan and was no longer interesting in installing textile units in Faisalabad. He added that there was no truth to this, as procedural work leading to construction activities is already under way.

They are making payments according to the agreement with FIEDMC authorities, he added. According to the agreement, the Chinese have to complete the payment in three installments. The first will cover 10% of the total amount, while the second will cover 40% and 50% will be covered in the third.

The 10% was the cost of land as investors will now pay the second instalment next week. This is just the beginning, Saleemi added, as they are expecting huge Chinese investments in the industrial estate in the near future.

In the beginning of October, FIEDMC issued the letter to the Chinese group to start their construction work according to the contract. Infrastructural and construction machineries dispatched from China will arrive in Faisalabad in a few days.

According to authorities, Shandong acquired the land and started construction work. They added that the construction of buildings, residential apartments and boundary walls has officially begun.

Two coal-based power plants of 270 megawatts – 135 MW each – are installed in the industrial estate to facilitate the energy requirements of the companies.

The development of the zone is increasing as other Chinese companies are also showing interest to invest in the area. Saleemi added that a well-known Chinese dry battery manufacturing company has also purchased 14 acres of land to install a unit there.

The MTM conundrum

Saleemi said that the Shandong Ruyi group was directly engaged with the FIEDMC management in all their financial and investment plans. He said there is no connection to the agreement the Chinese group has with Masood Textile Mills (MTM).

“It might be possible that they have problems with MTM to withdraw agreements of partnership, but Shandong was directly involved with FIEDMC,” he added.

To facilitate the Chinese investors, FIEDMC started teaching the Chinese language to their employees. For this purpose, they signed an agreement with the National University of Modern Languages Islamabad to deliver daily Chinese language lectures at the FIEDMC office.

According to industry experts, Shandong Ruyi is one of the largest textile conglomerates in China. The Chinese are losing competitive edge in their home country because of high wages – almost six times higher than in Pakistan – which gives them more incentive to invest here. This is the highest foreign investment in the textile sector of Pakistan, they added.

 

[Sulman Badshah]

Cooperation body: Pakistan elected to UN Economic, Social Council

Islamabad to help shape the Post-2015 Development Agenda. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been elected member of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for a three-year term starting January 1st, 2015.

Pakistan secured 181 out of a total of 186 votes cast by member states at the election held at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. A country required two-thirds majority of 124 to win a seat in the elections.

Pakistan was contesting for one of three Asian seats in the body. The other Asian countries elected were India and Japan.

This overwhelming support of the international community manifests confidence in Pakistan’s diplomacy and is an acknowledgment and appreciation of Pakistan’s longstanding commitment and contribution to the United Nations.

The 54-member body is one of principal organs of the United Nations mandated with the important task of coordination, policy review and formulating recommendations on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as for implementation of the internationally agreed development goals.

Pakistan’s election as a member of Ecosoc comes at a critical time when the UN-led deliberations to shape the Post-2015 development agenda are underway. Pakistan has remained actively engaged in this process.

Upon taking seat at the Ecosoc next year, Pakistan will continue its constructive engagement with the international community to help shape the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which will have elimination of abject poverty by 2030 as its overarching goal.

Pakistan will work with member states to make the Ecosoc stronger and more responsive to the contemporary social, economic and environmental challenges.

 

[Edevelop]

45 Storey, Proposed tower in Clifton Karachi

Pearl City in Faisalabad

 

[Edevelop]

Crescent Bay by Emaar in Karachi

 

[Edevelop]

Emporium Mall in Lahore

Credit: Ahmed Rashid Ahmed ssc

 

[Sulman Badshah]

Cooperation body: Pakistan elected to UN Economic, Social Council

Islamabad to help shape the Post-2015 Development Agenda. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been elected member of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for a three-year term starting January 1st, 2015.

Pakistan secured 181 out of a total of 186 votes cast by member states at the election held at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. A country required two-thirds majority of 124 to win a seat in the elections.

Pakistan was contesting for one of three Asian seats in the body. The other Asian countries elected were India and Japan.

This overwhelming support of the international community manifests confidence in Pakistan’s diplomacy and is an acknowledgment and appreciation of Pakistan’s longstanding commitment and contribution to the United Nations.

The 54-member body is one of principal organs of the United Nations mandated with the important task of coordination, policy review and formulating recommendations on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as for implementation of the internationally agreed development goals.

Pakistan’s election as a member of Ecosoc comes at a critical time when the UN-led deliberations to shape the Post-2015 development agenda are underway. Pakistan has remained actively engaged in this process.

Upon taking seat at the Ecosoc next year, Pakistan will continue its constructive engagement with the international community to help shape the Post-2015 Development Agenda, which will have elimination of abject poverty by 2030 as its overarching goal.

Pakistan will work with member states to make the Ecosoc stronger and more responsive to the contemporary social, economic and environmental challenges.

 

[Edevelop]

First Solar Measuring Station Starts Operation

LAHORE: Pakistan’s first solar measuring station to gather radiation data has commenced its operation in the neighbourhood of Bhawalpur district, a step towards compiling a national solar atlas.

The inaugural ceremony was held on Monday at Quaid-e-Azam (QA) Solar Park.

This is one of nine solar measuring stations to be installed across Pakistan as a part of the World Bank-funded renewable energy resource mapping and geospatial planning project with a financial outlay of $1.96 million.

Pakistan has more than 300 sunny days and one of best solar resource. However, enormous solar energy has yet to be tapped to meet burgeoning power demand. So far, only around 24 independent power producers – having 792.99 megawatts production capacity – are in different stages of development.

The nine solar measuring stations are being established in Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Karachi, Hyderabad, Bahawalpur, Nokundi and Multan.

Resource mapping and geospatial planning for solar, wind and biomass will be done through a global initiative being led by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program.

According to a World Bank document, the project is being formally launched to speed up the expansion of sustainable renewable power generation with the support of the World Bank and ESMAP’s renewable energy resource mapping Initiative to help improve the country’s knowledge and awareness of solar, wind and biomass energy resources.

All components of the solar measuring project – ground-based data collection, mapping, strategic environmental assessment, and developing policy recommendations – will be carried out based on ESMAP’s term of references and approved suppliers to ensure quality. For wind and solar, wind masts and pyranometers will be installed.

With installation of high-quality solar stations and a calibration station, the activity will collect, process and analyse resource data.

The equipment being installed will measure three types of solar radiation (direct normal, global horizontal, and diffuse), along with temperature, air pressure and wind speed.

The data is transmitted automatically to a central server, and will be made available for free by the World Bank for use by government and private investors.

The nine measuring stations will be operated for the World Bank for two years, with the data then used to produce a validated, high quality solar atlas for the entire country.

The World Bank is also developing a wind and a biomass atlas as part of the bank’s project.

The Commissioner Bahawalpur presided over the inauguration ceremony of the station’s operation. Representatives from the World Bank, Alternative Energy Development Board, solar power park and various other dignitaries and stakeholders attended the ceremony.

Oliver Knight, representative of the World Bank, said the solar measuring station is ‘high precision’ grade; the second high precision station will be installed at the NUST campus in Islamabad.

The other seven sites will receive standard measurement stations more suitable for remote regions and require less maintenance.

Najam Ahmed Shah, chief executive officer at QA Solar Power Pvt Ltd, promised to extend assistance in the maintenance of the station, apart from nominating QA engineers to act as focal persons for technical co-ordination.

Solar measuring station starts operation - thenews.com.pk

In Quaid e Azam Solar Park, Bahawalpur

 

[Edevelop]

One Constitution Towers in Islamabad

Rawalpindi Metro:

Karachi:

Bahria Icon Tower

Com 3 Tower

 

[Edevelop]

LDA likely to use tunnel boring machines

For the first time, the city is likely to have development work through use of huge Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs).

The equipment will be used for executing the project titled “Laying of sewerage and drainage pipelines and capacity enhancement of the existing drainage system at Central and North Lahore.”

Though the study of the project worth about Rs8 billion had been conducted by Nespak about 10 years back, the Strategic Policy Unit (SPU) -- a think tank of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) -- started reviewing it in order to suggest better options in this regard.

“In the Nespak’s study, the experts suggested to lay a pipeline of 60-inch diameter from Larex Colony to Bund Road via Garhi Shahu, Lakshmi Chowk, Chauburji, Samanabad, Gulshan-i-Ravi in order to drain out the rain/waste water in the Ravi. The route of the pipeline was 17-km and under this, the Water and Sanitation Agency was also to establish a pumping station at Gulshan-i-Ravi in addition to the existing one,” said a senior LDA official.

He said similarly another pipeline of 96-inch diameter was also suggested to be laid from Gulberg to Charar drain via Kalma Chowk and Ferozpur Road in order to drain out the water first in Charar and then Hadiara for its onward final disposal to the Ravi. But the experts had suggested to lay both the pipelines through open cuts — a method that involved massive digging up to 20 to 30 feet and then lay the pipes. Since the idea of launching the project through open cut methods involved fear of a massive damage to all sorts of the existing infrastructure, the LDA’s top command directed the SPU to review and suggest some other measures.

“So the officials in SPU started work on it by involving various Wasa experts. And through exploring other methods as being adopted in China, Turkey, Korea, India and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), it was decided to buy at least two TBMs worth about Rs600 million to avoid damage to the existing infrastructure,” the official added.

He said the TBMs used to perform well by doing two works simultaneously. “The machine makes boring besides injecting and fixing pipeline at a time without damaging the existing infrastructure. And there will be no problem to the people moving on roads, streets and thoroughfares.”

He said a PC-1 had been submitted jointly by the LDA and Wasa under which three options were presented to the planning and development department.

“As per the option-1, the government has been asked to accord approval to laying out the pipelines through open/cut/local method as suggested by the Nespak. In this case, work will be completed in 50 months.

“Under option-II, the LDA/Wasa experts have suggested to lay out the pipelines by using two TBMs. It will take about 30 months. According to the last option, we have suggested to complete the project in 15 months by involving four TBMs,” the official explained.

He said since the department had principally agreed with the SPU last week, it might accord approval to the PC-1 under option-II. The official claimed the LDA and Wasa would immediately launch the project soon after receiving approval from the department. This project would not only help the government avoid accumulation of water during rainy season but also carry out timely drainage of the domestic sewerage, he claimed.

The officials of the city district government and town municipal administration are experiencing a hectic work schedule with the onset of Muharram. Many of them return to their homes at night despite reporting to their respective offices early in the morning.

They are even spending their holidays (Sundays) at their offices without any sort of TA/DA and overtime.

“I couldn’t sleep well for the last many days. I and my staff are arriving office at about 8am daily and going back homes at 9pm,” an official told Dawn.

He said besides Muharram, they were also regularly performing additional duties related to dengue and polio etc.

He urged the senior officials to recruit temporary staff for such occasions rather than making the existing staff over-burdened. He also sought payment of TA/DA along with overtime under labour laws.–

CITY diary : LDA likely to use tunnel boring machines - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

 

[Edevelop]

Karakoram Highway

Makran Coastal Highway

M-1 (Peshawar-Islamabad)

M-2 (Lahore-Islamabad)