The Punjab Planning and Development Department hosted a meeting of the inter-ministerial committee on mid-term development framework along the western route of the CPEC under the chairmanship of Minister for Planning and Development Malik Nadeem Kamran.
Addressing the meeting, the minister said that all necessary steps must be taken to make CPEC a success. The western corridor of the CPEC will provide fast and world class connectivity and for this special emphasis must be placed on development of provincial roads, highways, industrial estates, housing colonies, rain water harvesting projects, inland water transport and the establishment of technical education institutes in districts along the western route of the corridor.
Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Saeed suggested the way forward, stating that sector wise working groups comprising of the relevant ministers, secretaries, sector experts, and other stakeholders must be formulated in order to make sound evidence-based recommendations to present to the chief minister for the uplift of districts along the western route.
The objective of the meeting was to deliberate on leveraging the western corridor of CPEC for the development of Mianwlai, Chakwal, and Attock districts. The western corridor contains 285km of road that has been divided into five packages for purposes of speedy execution. Four packages pass through Punjab and one through KPK. The corridor will be a four lane motorway, designed for 120 km/hour speed, and will have eleven interchanges, the planning and development chairman said.
Parliamentarians Obaid Ullah Shadi Khel, Malik Aitbar Khan, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Asif Ali Malik, Inamullah Khan Niazi, and other political leaders from various districts of Punjab gave their suggestions regarding the development framework for key focus sectors such as agriculture, livestock, minerals, housing and urban development, infrastructure, and industrial development along the western route.
Ministers for irrigation, industries, sports and youth affairs, various MPAs and MNAs, the chief secretary, secretaries of various departments, government officials and other stakeholders also attended the meeting.
