A meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on the Economic Affairs Division held in Islamabad pressed for execution of the Lyari Freight Corridor through the Public Sector Development Programme to protect public finances and ensure cost-efficient delivery. Under the acting chairmanship of Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, MNAs discussed the strategic importance of the Lyari Freight Corridor for national logistics, port efficiency and economic growth.<\/p>\n
Committee members reviewed financing proposals and technical options for the Lyari Freight Corridor. They were briefed that Korean Exim Bank proposed financing for an estimated construction cost of Rs. 164 billion with a 40-year loan at a one percent interest rate, while the National Highway Authority\u2019s locally executed model assessed the project cost at Rs. 88.6 billion. The Committee concluded that PSDP financing would better serve national interests by reducing long-term fiscal liabilities and overall cost.<\/p>\n
Officials explained that the Korean Exim Bank model relied on a heavier design featuring imported steel bridges with an estimated cost of Rs. 61 billion just for the steel elements. The NHA presented an indigenous alternative using concrete bridges with an estimated cost of Rs. 23 billion, highlighting significant potential savings and greater use of local resources. The Committee recommended adopting the cost-efficient indigenous design to optimize value for the national exchequer.<\/p>\n
To manage budgetary impact, the Standing Committee suggested phasing the Lyari Freight Corridor through PSDP over three years, allocating roughly Rs. 40 billion per year. Members emphasized that this approach would accelerate work while protecting public funds and supporting long-term infrastructure objectives for Karachi and national trade corridors.<\/p>\n
Beyond the Lyari project, the Committee received updates on multilateral-funded programmes. Progress on the ADB-financed CAREC initiative was described as commendable for Tranche-I and Tranche-II, while Tranche-III remains under implementation and has experienced delays mainly due to land acquisition hurdles, procedural slowdowns and contract award inefficiencies. The Committee urged immediate resolution of outstanding issues so Tranche-III can meet its targets, noting that Tranche-IV depends on Tranche-III\u2019s completion.<\/p>\n
The Committee also reviewed World Bank-backed projects. The Khyber Pass Economic Corridor remains at the design stage but has faced setbacks from procedural challenges, despite its strategic potential to improve connectivity with Afghanistan and lower logistics costs. The Karachi Mobility Project was acknowledged for its role in tackling urban transport pressures, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rural Accessibility Project was noted for improving all-weather rural roads across the province.<\/p>\n
Members stressed the need for stronger coordination, streamlined procurement and robust monitoring across all donor-funded projects to prevent further delays and to maximize socio-economic benefits. The meeting was attended by MNAs including Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, Muhammad Tufail, Muhammad Khan Daha, Ammar Ahmad Khan Leghari, Akhtar Bibi, Huma Chughtai, Syeda Shehla Raza, Muhammad Jawed Hanif Khan, Neelam and Zeb Jaffar, along with the Secretary EAD and officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and other concerned departments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Standing Committee urges PSDP funding for Lyari Freight Corridor to lower costs and accelerate construction with an indigenous design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}