On Tuesday, the Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal, virtually chaired a meeting of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP). The meeting participants discussed three different projects in the country.

During the meeting, the CDWP referred the ‘Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rural Accessibility Project’ worth Rs 69,440.00 million to the Executive Committee of the National Executive Council (ECNEC). Additionally, the CDWP approved two other development projects. They include the construction of a six-lane overhead bridge at Imamia Colony Railway Crossing Shahdara worth Rs 3,958.188 million. Additionally, the Sindh Health Support Programme is worth Rs 3,098.600 million.

The National Highway Authority (NHA) will charge toll tax after the construction of the six-lane overhead bridge at Imamia Colony Railway Crossing. It is being sponsored by the Ministry of Communications. The revised project entails the construction of a 613-meter railway overhead bridge. It approaches ramps on either side of National Highway N-5 at Imamia Colony Railway crossing at Shahdara.

The proposed overhead bridge is expected to facilitate the free flow of traffic on N-5. As the rail track between Lahore and Faisalabad intercepts N-5 dual carriageway at Imamia Colony, located 1.5 km north of Shahdara.

The Sindh Health Support Programme aims to localize the National UHC (Universal Health Coverage) Benefits Package. The Sindh government took the lead in Pakistan by developing the provincial EPHS (Essential Public Health Services). They also prioritized a total of 131 interventions as District EPHS.

These interventions include 94 immediate priority interventions. Out of these, 21 are at the community level, 37 at the Primary Health, and 36 at the Hospital level. The interventions aim to improve health with resilient health infrastructure.