ISLAMABAD: As the delay in progress on projects’ execution resulting in cost escalation, has been a major issue regarding development projects, Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) , has developed a portal for monitoring the real-time progress of any project being funded by the government.
During a meeting held at the Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives on Monday, the Planning Commission Department of Geo-Spatial Technology Cell of SUPARCO briefed about the use of technology for inspection of the development schemes on ground.
According to officials it was informed that a web portal was designed to support the ministry in order to utilize these solutions for evidence-based reporting and monitoring of PSDP projects incorporating satellite technology. Secretary Planning Abdul Aziz Uqaili, Member SUPARCO Zafar Iqbal. Member M&E, Additional Secretaries, Chief Technology Officer, Geospatial technology cell Riffat Shamshad, and Senior Officials were present in the meeting.
The meeting with SUPARCO was conducted to revamp the P&E system having state of art technologies. The solutions developed were demonstrated in the meeting including data collection with geo-tagged real-time information and pictures offering both online and offline mechanisms for data transmission. It was informed in the meeting that SUPARCO is providing the first intact knowledge of the real-time project and every four days they are able to see the ground progress of the project through this technology.
While taking briefing Federal Minister Asad Umar said that the weak Monitoring & Evaluation(P&E) system in the Planning Commission always resulted in delay/inefficiency in PSD Projects implementation causing massive overrun, increase in cost, and wastage of taxpayer money as well. That’s why we need to revamp the overall Monitoring and Evaluation process.
“We need to have a clear idea of how this system can be used to monitor the quantitative and qualitative condition of projects, and how well these are integrated with the system,” said Asad Umar. The Minister also discussed the frequency of assessments and sought details at the next meeting on how the Planning Commission would coordinate monitoring and assessment information with future reports.
SUPARCO has recently developed a Web GIS Portal to monitor the infrastructure projects and successfully demonstrated to the Planning Commission. Minister appreciated SUPARCO to be part of this endeavor through satellite and GIS data analytics, geo-tagged field data collection and real-time implementation progress of the projects. The forum suggested further improvements and integration of the system with the Planning Commission system for effective monitoring.
