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Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah stated on Thursday that investments in Karachi have remained high on the agenda for undertaking infrastructure and service development activities. Over the last five years, Rs137.3 billion has been spent on development projects primarily for internal roads, water supply, sewerage, solid waste management, stormwater drains, and transportation and mass transit, he said.
Addressing a 75-member delegation of Security Workshop-24 of National Defence University (NDU) led by Brigadier Tariq Niaz at the CM House, he said that 150 kilometres of roads were constructed through 73 major projects along with stormwater drains, 14 flyovers, underpasses and bridges on major roads, adding that four Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) schemes, 31 major schemes for water supply and sewerage systems, and 28 major schemes for health and education infrastructure were in progress.
He claimed that when the PPP took power in 2008, the province’s law and order situation was at its worst.
“Karachi was ranked sixth in the world on the international crime index in 2014, and it is now ranked 128th,” he noted.
Damage to agriculture, industry, and services is estimated to be 4.8% of 2022 GDP.
According to the CM, the Afghanistan war was also to blame for terrorism, so a National Action Plan (NAP) was implemented, under which targeted operations were launched to produce the best results.
The CM praised the provincial government’s achievement of coal-fired power generation in Thar. He stated that Thar contributed approximately 1,000MW to the national grid.
He claimed that the Nooriabad power project, in which his government had a stake, was supplying Karachi with 100MW of uninterrupted power.
When discussing post-disaster need assessment (PDNA), the economic impact of floods-2022, the chief minister stated that extensive damage in agriculture, industry, and services sectors was estimated to be equal to 4.8% of 2022 GDP.
He stated that significant GDP losses as a direct result of the floods are expected to be around 2.2 percent in 2022, with agriculture accounting for the largest drop at 0.9 percent.
“Multidimensional poverty in Sindh is expected to rise by 10.2 percentage points,” the CM said, adding that the housing stock in Sindh had been the worst affected, accounting for 83 percent of total housing damage.
Mr Shah stated that the unprecedented recovery and reconstruction effort would require 1.6 times the national development budget for 2023.
