The district administration shelved the construction of an Information Technology (IT) University at the site of the old vegetable market near Babar cinema chowk, instead opting to build a multi-purpose theme park providing recreational facilities to general public.
Sources in the DC office development department told The Express Tribune that two ex-governors of Punjab and outgoing prime minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced the establishment of an IT University during their several visits to Faisalabad, vowing to make the city an IT hub that would produce skilled labour.
Consequently, multiple development proposals and rough cost estimates were prepared by development departments and local universities affiliated with the IT sector and several voluminous files were dispatched to the Punjab Planning and Development Department.
The files were circulated among different government departments to no avail. The sources added that Punjab Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi last month had expressed surprise regarding the required funding for the establishment of the university and he advised the district administration to scrap the idea due to a lack of funds and growing inflation.
He instead ordered the eviction of land grabbers from the encroached land and the construction of a theme park.
He directed the administration to prepare the PC-1 for the project overnight and sent rough cost estimates to the CM Secretariat. The Punjab Government has allocated Rs320 million in funding for the project and earmarked 43 kanals and 8 marlas of land for this purpose.
Director General Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) Zameer Hussain, while delivering a briefing to DC Faisalabad on Thursday, stated that an environmentally-friendly park would be constructed comprised of walking and jogging tracks, merry-go-rounds, tuck shops, a tea house and other amenities and recreational activities adjacent to the congested locality of Nazim Abad and other settlements.
An anonymous IT professor at GC University Faisalabad lamented that official promises are made only to be broken and sham policies and announcements by the high offices were made just for public consumption.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2023.
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