Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has announced that a master plan for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of the flood affected areas will be prepared by 15th of the next month.

Speaking in the National Assembly this evening, he said the decision to this effect was taken at the recent meetings with the senior leadership of Pakistan People’s Party and other coalition partners. He said work on the master plan will be started by the Planning Ministry soon after the passage of the Budget.

The Finance Minister said that unprecedented floods inflicted a loss of over 30 billion dollars on the country and 16.3 billion dollars will be required for the completion of the construction and rehabilitation work in the four to five years.

He further made it clear that 11 billion dollars of 16.3 billion dollars will be spent for the flood-hit areas of Sindh, while the rest will be made available for Balochistan and South Punjab. 

He said international donors had pledged over eight billion dollars to help the flood affected people of Pakistan. He said it has been decided reconstruction projects worth 8.1 billion dollars will be funded by Pakistan with a fifty-fifty percent share of the Federal and the provincial governments.

Giving details of the mega projects to be executed in the flood-affected areas, the Finance Minister said the Sindh Government has started a flood emergency housing project. He said a funding of 50 billion rupees will be required for this project during the next fiscal year.

He said fifty percent of the funds will be contributed by the Federal Government.

Ishaq Dar said an investment of forty six billion rupees is required for the KB feeder of K-4 and an extension of Keenjhar Lake.

He said that an amount of six billion rupees will be required for this project during the next fiscal year. He said both the federal and the Sindh governments will make a contribution of three billion rupees each.                         

The Finance Minister said the Sindh Government also has a plan to reconstruct 1800 schools affected by the heavy rains and floods last year at a cost of 11.9 billion rupees. He said four billion rupees are required for this project during the next financial year.

The Federal Government will provide two billion dollars while the remaining half will be provided by the provincial government.