LAHORE: The Infrastructure Development Authority of Punjab (IDAP) has formally held its first board of governors/directors meeting, approving all items on the agenda.

The meeting was held some five days back at the CM Secretariat, according to ofñcialsources.

According to a document (presentation), 11 items were placed before the participants and got the approval. They included proposed organogram and creation of posts, remuneration and hiring staff oncompetitive market salaries, proposed eligibility criteria (job descriptions), proposed HR committees, budget estimates for unancial year 2015-16 (January 2016 June 2016), hiring office premises, proposed procurement committee, one-time waiver from austerity committee regarding capital expenditure required for establishing the authority, delegation of financial powers, proposed amendment in rules of business and opening bank account under Section 13 of IDAP and ordinance 2015.

While explaining the current scenario of the civil work-related department that made the govern-ment establish the IDAP, the document states that the earlier departments had institutional constraints.

It states that the IDAP, an autonomous body established under `The Infrastructure Development Authority of Punjab, Ordinance 2015`, will be a specialized organization, free of encumbrances prevalent in public sector departments.

The purpose of the IDAP is to get the mega projects executed efficiently, aesthetically, and transparently without compromising quality or entailing delays, in-house complete project management services including feasibility, design,contract management, execution, supervision, third party evaluation, and delivery to the client department.

The IDAP will also be responsible in designing the project by specialists and professional consultants, monitoring of critical activities during each phase of project cycle, superior speciñcations and transparent bidding, service level to match international technical expertise, scheduling of the project activities up to completion, independent third-party evaluation from consultants, organisational support and capacity-building of client departments, modernbusiness processes and corporate practices, departure from the current culture of public sector departments.

The sources claim that the IDAP will offer a variety of services to the departments in buildings (multi-purpose for client departments), highways (roads, bridges, flyovers, etc.), public transport (mass transit solutions), water resources (irrigation infrastructure), public health (water supply, sewerage, water treatment plants, solid waste), housing (multipurpose housing, low-income housing) and energy (thermal, hydel, solar, biomass, wind etc).