LAHORE: The total development programme of Rs.550 billion was approved by the Provincial Assembly for the financial year 2016-17 which was 38% higher than the development programme of last year.
Out of this budget Rs.169 billion has been earmarked for the social sectors included Rs.42.5 billion for the Health, Rs.68 billion for the Education whereas Rs.158 billion for the Infrastructure Development which included the roads, irrigation and the public building sectors and an amount of Rs 29.2 billion has been allocated for the development of Agriculture and Livestock Sectors, told Planning and Development spokesman.
During the first half of the current financial year 2016-17, an amount of Rs.282 billion has been released for the implementation of 6080 development projects across the Punjab. This included Rs.44.5 billion for the Education, Rs.29.8 billion for the Health, Rs.24 billion for the Water Supply and Sanitation and Rs.3 billion for the sports and Youth Affairs. During the current financial year, unprecedented allocations have been made for the development of the Health, Education, Agriculture, Irrigation and the Infrastructure Development Sectors.
These funds have been released for the implementation of schemes all over the Punjab without any geographical discrimination and the funds against all the ongoing development projects of ADP 2016-17 were released during the first week of July 2016 enabling the executing agencies to start development work.
A number of projects are being implemented a few of them included: Multan Metro Bus Project is being completed during current year at the cost of Rs.30 billion, the expansion of Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital in Muzaffargarh at the cost of Rs.9 billion, Khawaja Fareed Engineering and I.T. University at Rahim Yar Khan at the cost of Rs.3.8 billion, Bahawalpur Cardiac Surgery Block at BV Hospital at the cost of Rs.1.3 billion, the up-gradation of DHQ Hospitals to the level of Teaching Hospital at Sialkot, Sahiwal, Gujranwala and D.G. Khan at the cost of Rs.12 billion, the revamping of all DHQ Hospitals and 15 THQ Hospitals in Punjab at the cost of Rs.5 billion, Khadim-e-Punjab School Programme at the cost of Rs.50 billion, Khadim-e-Punjab Rural Road Programme at the cost of Rs.150 billion, Tribal Area Development Project for D.G. Khan and Rajanpur Areas Districts (Rs.3.381 billion), the development schemes for Cholistan Development Authority (Rs.2.712 billion), the development projects for Barani areas (Rs.358 million), New Khanki Barrage (Rs.23 billion), the rehabilitation of Trimu Barrage (Rs.17 billion), the construction of the small dams (Rs.7 billion), Agriculture Development Package (Rs.20 billion), the establishment of University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Bahawalpur (Rs.3 billion), the construction of Canal Expressway from Gutwala to Sahiawala, Faisalabad (Rs.6 billion),the improvement of Jhal Khanuwana Chowk, Faisalabad (Rs.2.5 billion), the completion of 13 Sewerage / Water Supply schemes of WASA, Multan (Rs.3.67 billion), the dualisation of Road from Bahawalpur to Hasilpur at the cost of Rs.5 billion, the construction of Flyover on G.T. Road at Aziz Cross Road Gujranwala at the cost of Rs.6.6 billion and the dualisation of Muridkey Narowal Road with total cost of Rs.4.4 billion