PHOTO:INP
The first meeting of the board was held under the chairmanship of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar at his office on Tuesday. The meeting approved implementation on mega projects and appointed Dr Muhammad Junaid Ashraf as executive board committee director.
The CM also approved the recruitment of human resources for public-private partnership policy and monitoring board, along with the establishment of the weaving city in the industrial city of Faisalabad. This project will be completed with an amount of Rs4.50 billion and Faisalabad’s power looms industry will also be shifted to the weaving city.
Pakistan, China agree to expand CPEC scope
Zero-rating tax will be implemented for PPP mode projects and line departments will take necessary steps. The meeting gave the approval to set up combined effluent treatment plants in Sundar Industrial Estate and Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Estate, Lahore, with a total amount of Rs6 billion. The meeting also gave the go-ahead to the installation of one million water meters in Lahore at a cost of Rs10 billion. The southern loop-III project of Lahore Ring Road was given approval and it would be completed at an amount of around Rs10 billion.
The meeting approved dualisation of Chiniot-Pindi Bhattian Road, along with the provision of a project development facility, which would also be provided to the Lai Expressway Project. It also okayed repair and maintenance projects of Gujrat-Jalalpur Jattan Road, Mianwali-Muzaffargarh Road and Faisalabad-Chiniot-Sargodha Road, along with the approval of schemes, related to Multan-Vehari Road, Lilla Interchange to Jhelum Road, Tirinda Pannah Muhammad Din-KLM-Head Punjnad Road, Depalpur-Okara Road, Samundari-Jhang Road and Shakargarh-Zafarwal Road.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said that the formation of the PPP policy and monitoring board will help accelerate the implementation development schemes. “Now, investors will not have to struggle as the needful will be done under one roof. The expertise of private-sector experts will also be benefitted upon and the delay in mega public welfare projects will come to an end.”
Buzdar said that he would personally monitor the progress made on PPP mode projects.
Construction of Diamer-Bhasha dam to begin shortly
Board Secretary Dr Farrukh Naveed told the meeting that projects worth Rs389 billion are in the pipeline under the public-private partnership.
The first meeting of PPP Policy and Monitoring Board was held under the chairmanship of the CM and attended by its board members, comprising CM’s Advisor Dr Salman Shah, Minister for Finance Hashim Jawan Bakth, MPAs, Punjab Chief Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, P&D Board Chairman Habibur Rehman Gillani, Senior Member Board of Revenue Shaukat Ali, secretaries and private sector representatives.
The board approved three PPP projects amounting to Rs10.6 billion to be undertaken in PPP mode. The first of these projects is the establishment of the weaving City at M-3 Industrial City, Faisalabad. The objective is to shift power looms from residential areas to a planned setup. The second is titled ‘Combined Effluent Treatment Plant at Sundar Industrial Estate and Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Estate’ to Improve environment and ecosystem through the treatment of industrial wastewater and installment of treatment plants to treat wastewater.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 6th, 2019.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ