Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that his government has launched Rs26 billion road sector projects in Sindh under which 239 kilometer road is being constructed all over Sindh.

He was presiding over a meeting to review the progress of W&S department road sector projects and also discussed Asian Development Bank Sindh Provincial Road Improvement Project (SPRIP) under which 328 km road is being constructed.

The meeting was attended by P&D Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Works & Services Minister Imdad Pitafi, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Works Aijaz Memon and concerned chief engineers.

Briefing the chief minister the works minister Imdad Pitafi said that highways department has launched 488 road schemes, including 396 on-going and 92 new. The roads have almost been completed.

Talking about new schemes, the secretary Works told the chief minister that four road sector schemes have been taken up by district government, 37 have been approved by DDWP and 28 have been cleared or approved by PDWP while 21 schemes would be discussed in PDWP in its next meeting.

Giving status of 41 schemes, the secretary said that Sakrand Sarhari (Shaheed Benazirabad) and Ruk-Lakhi (Shikarpur) have been completed last month. He said that nine schemes would be completed by the end of October and two in November and 28 in December, 2017.

Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem briefed the chief minister about ADB SPRIP schemes. He said that the project cost is Rs22750 million in which ADB contributes 90.86 percent soft loan while the provincial government share 9.14 percent funds. He said that the project was approved in 2016 and now works have been started.

The chief minister was told that under the project 67 km Tando Mohammad Khann Badin road, 55 km Digri-Naukot road, 64 km Khyber-Sanghar via Tando Adam road, 63 km Sanghar-Mirpurkhas via Sindhri road, 36 km Sheranpur-Ratodero road, 44 km Thul-Kandhkot road have been started.

The chief minister directed chairman P&D to keep inspecting the roads so that their quality and speed of work could be achieved as per the target.

Secretary works told the chief minister that over Rs4.8 billion funds have been allocated for Maintenance and repair (M&R) of roads, against which the government has released Rs1.83 billion.

The released funds have been transferred to the concerned chief engineers to carry out repair works. On this the chief minister directed works minister Imdad Pitafi to personally watch the proper utilization of funds. “The roads we are constructing must be maintained by carrying out their M&R,” he said.