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Finance secretary John Swinney said that the projects would be delivered as part of a £1bon extension of the non-profit distributing (NPD) programme.

An additional £100m is being allocated to the Schools for the Future programme, taking the budget to £900m, while £120m in NPD investment will fund a new maternity hospital and a new cancer centre on the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Campus.

Full details of the infrastructure projects within the planned £1bn extension to the programme will be in the autumn draft budget.

NPD is Scotland’s solution to PFI profiteering. It puts a limit on the private sector returns and returns any surplus to the public sector.

Other major projects in the NPD pipeline include:

• M8 M73 M74 motorway improvements: £310m – reached financial close February 2014 – in construction

• City of Glasgow College: £193m – reached financial close August 2013 – in construction

• Inverness College: £45m – reached financial close May 2013 – .

• Ayrshire College, Kilmarnock Campus:  £48m – reached financial close on June 2014 – McLaughlin &Harvey started construction this week.

• NHS Lothian Royal Hospital for Sick Children/Department of Clinical Neurosciences: £155m – ­to start construction in October 2014.

• National Centre for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service projects: £36m – in March 2014 and starts construction in August 2014.

• NHS Ayrshire & Arran Acute Mental Health & North Ayrshire Community Hospital: £48m –   starts construction July 2014.

• AWPR/Balmedie-Tipperty road scheme: £472m – is expected to start construction before end of 2014 with completion in spring 2018.

• NHS Dumfries & Galloway Royal Acute Services Redevelopment Project: £203m –  expected to start construction in 2015.