Aashiyana housing scheme: Shahbaz inaugurates link road project

70,000 forms distributed; 6,000 houses to be built in the 1st phase.


Express December 19, 2010

LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday opened a link road project. The road will link the Aashiyana housing scheme, a project for low-income people, at Suae Asal to Raiwaind.

The widening and improvement of the 17 km road will start from December 26.

Shahbaz said the construction of the road would help provide state-of-the-art communication facilities to the residents. He said he would ensure that a high standard of the construction work was maintained.

Punjab Land Development Company chairman Sheikh Allauddin, the Planning and Development Commission chairman, the Lahore Commissioner, the National Logistics Cell director general, the Sui Gas general manager, the Lahore Electric Supply Company chief engineer and a senior Board of Revenue member were present on the occasion.

Addressing the ceremony, the chief minister said that low-income people will get all the facilities the elite enjoyed in their housing schemes. He said that the residents would be provided with job opportunities near their houses, adding that a plot had already been set aside in the scheme for setting up a cottage industry. This, he said, would save residents the hassle of travelling all the way to Lahore or Kasur for work.

Shahbaz said that the scheme would have schools, dispensaries and playgrounds. He said that earlier it was proposed that one-room houses be constructed in the Aashiyana Housing Scheme but he had rejected the idea and ordered for construction of complete houses. A 10 per cent quota has been reserved for orphans, widows and martyrs in the scheme. The remaining 90 per cent of the houses, Shahbaz said, would be allotted through a transparent balloting process. In the first phase, he said, 6,000 houses would be built at Suae Asal in a year. About 70,000 forms have already been distributed for these.

Commenting on the alleged embezzlement in the purchase of machinery at Nawaz Sharif Social Security Hospital, the chief minister said he had constituted an inquiry committee, headed by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) director general, to probe the allegations. He said if the committee detected irregularities, the guilty would be punished.

Earlier, Communication and Works secretary gave a briefing about the construction work on the link road.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19th, 2010.

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