KARACHI: Caretaker Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Bagar on Saturday approved the project of outsourcing of four recreational resorts to rehabilitate these facilities.

The recreational resorts are Keenjhar Lake Resort, Haleji Lake Resort, Hawkesbay Resort and Ranikot Guesthouse.

Presiding over the 42nd Public Private Partnership (PPP) Unit Policy Board meeting, the chief minister directed the unit to rehabilitate these facilities, explore their true potential and provide quality entertainment and recreational options under PPP mode.

The meeting was attended by provincial caretaker ministers, Mubeen Jumani, Ishwar Lal and Arshad Wali Mohammad, chief secretary Dr Fakhre Alam, chairman P&D Shakil Mangnejo, Senior Member Board of Revenue Sindh Zahid Abbasi, NED Vice Chancellor Dr Sarosh Lodhi and others.

The board was informed that the project was about outsourcing of four resorts Keenjhar Lake Resort, Haleji Lake Resort, Hawkesbay Resort and RanikotGuesthouse -under PPP mode to rehabilitate these facilities.

The board approved the hiring of transaction advisers to conduct detailed feasibility to develop and outsource the project by way of a competitive bidding process.

Nabisar to Vajihar water supply project The meeting participants were told that the project was aimed at supplying 45 cusecs of treated water to IPPs at Thar Block II through a 65km pipeline and storage capacity of 45 days.

`This is the first project of its kind in a PPP mode for a water delivery mechanism,` the meeting was told.

The board was apprised of the provincial cabinet`s approval regarding the injection of Rs4.6 billion in the project by way of equity/ sub-debt to help achieve the financial close of the project.

Motor vehicle inspection project The board was informed that the project shall address the long pending issue of inadequate inspection facilities for vehicles in Karachi.

The private party shall establish 32 state-of-the-art vehicle inspection centres catering to light and heavy vehicles with robust enforcement mechanisms.

The board directed to hire trans-action advisers to carry out a detailed feasibility study to develop the project for bidding.

The board was informed that the project was aimed at developing a dedicated state-of-the-art facility for setting up marble and allied industries which shall not only save the foreign exchange, but also contribute towards the overall economy of the country.

To attract more completion, the board was presented with two revised project structures for the consideration and decision.

The first structure was based on conducting the bidding process based on revenue sharing with the provincial government with demand risk being parked with private parties, which had a way of increasingthe prices ofthe plots.

The second option was based on conducting the bidding based on the development cost of the project with the demand risk being parked with the provincial government.

Considering that the objective of the government is to attract serious industrialists to set up marble industries and not the revenue generation,theboard approved the second structure and emphasised that international competitive bidding may be conducted to ensure wider competition.