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ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives (PDSI) Asad Umar said that during the first eight months of the financial year 2019-2020, the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) had witnessed a record utilization of 39 percent. The minister said that it was the highest recorded utilization of development budget for the past six years.

He said that the maximum utilization of the PSDP was witnessed in the FY 2014-2015, when it touched 32 percent in the first six months. The minister said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was committed to the speedy and transparent completion of all the ongoing projects, and had been working to ensure diligent monitoring and evaluation, and implementation of all the projects.

He said that during the current financial year, more than 200 projects were expected to be completed.

The minister said that Peshawar-Karachi Motorway Project (Sukkur-Multan section) had been completed up to 99 percent, and this year Rs17.7 billion were spent on that project. He said that Faisalabad-Khanewal road project had witnessed 98 percent physical progress, and Rs5 billion were allocated for it.

While highlighting the progress made to ensure water security for Pakistan, Umar said in a statement that during the first eight months of the current financial year Rs2.5 billion were spent under the National Program for Improvement of Watercourses in Pakistan-Phase-II, which translated to a 50 percent utilization rate, whereas work on Mohmand Dam Hydropower project had also been initiated, and Rs2.8 billion had already been spent. He said that for the construction of small dams in Khuzdar Rs125 million had been utilized.

Meanwhile, the federal government has released Rs464.71 billion (66.3 percent) including Rs92.74 billion foreign aid (72.3 percent) for various ongoing and new development projects under the PSDP 2019-2020 against the total budgeted allocation of Rs701 billion.

According to the latest PSDP 2019-2020 data released by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms last Saturday, the government released Rs193.1 billion (63.6 percent) including Rs12.48 billion foreign aid for development projects of various ministries, divisions and related departments out of Rs303.66 billion budgeted allocation.