- PM invites opposition to visit network of roads, motorways, asks to acknowledge good work
- NHA chairman confirms Lahore-Abdul Hakeem Motorway to be completed ahead of time
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said that his government was building the real new Pakistan and taking all steps to make it an Asian Tiger.
Inspecting progress on the Motorway-3 section, he said that he was pleased to note the pace of construction and its high quality. He said that his government was undertaking a series of projects across Pakistan including many in Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir.
In next few years, Pakistan would emerge as a strong economy and power of the region, he said, adding that Pakistan would be the new “Asian Tiger” and connect the entire country with all the regional countries. “This is the Pakistan of 21st century and this is called the new Pakistan,” he said.
He lashed out at the opposition saying his government would continue to march ahead on the path of progress and prosperity by undertaking huge development projects. “We were neither afraid of them in the past, nor would be frightened in the future. Our people now look forward to us and not towards them, as their future is with us,” he said.
He invited the opposition to visit the network of roads and motorways and asked them to at least acknowledge the good work being done by the government. He said that criticism on anything was easy, but it required guts to admit the good work and its benefits for the masses. Around 50,000 workers were deployed on the project and similarly hundreds and thousands were working on other projects, he said.
The prime minister said that the motorway would soon link Peshawar to Karachi with a six-lane high-quality road. He said that no country in the region could boast such a road network and said if it was because Almighty Allah was compassionate. “If Allah is benevolent to someone, then no one can do anything about it,” the prime minister said.
He also said that this would be unfair if these hard working labours were denied employment opportunities. He said that the Gwadar Port would be connected to China and allow rapid transportation of goods. Earlier such projects used to lag for decades, but today, things had changed and now the entire length of motorways complete in mere two years, he said.
He said that now these roads had quality and long life and would last for several years. The prime minister said that the PML-N government was reconstructing the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway and would serve the nation for several decades. Today, the worth of the asset has risen from mere Rs 25 billion to Rs 500 billion, he pointed out.
He said that the worth of the national assets was multiplying rapidly. After his forced ouster in 1999, not even a single large development project was undertaken, he said. “Terrorism was rife, lives of the people were at stake, but today peace is returning to the cities and towns, the economy is strengthening and the world is acknowledging the country’s rise,” he said.
Today, Balochistan had left its restive past behind and progress and development could be seen across the province, the prime minister said. “Let the pace of progress and development move ahead at a fast pace and let the people of Pakistan reap the benefit,” he said.
Pakistan would be connected to the Central Asian states through a network of highways, motorways and rail tracks, he said, adding that the country would soon boast world class interconnected roads. He also appreciated the performance and quality of work by the China Railways and ZKB.
The National Highway Authority Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar briefed the prime minister about the motorway’s M3 section, on which 44 percent work has been completed. He was informed that it was scheduled to be operational by March 2018, while efforts were underway to complete it earlier.
The M-3 will connect with M-4 at Abdul Hakeem and provide an alternate and direct route from Lahore to Multan. The project will be completed with a cost of Rs 148.654 billion. The structure at M-3 includes eight interchanges, eight bridges over major roads, 35 bridges over canals, minors, 60 underpasses, 201 cattle creeps and 705 culverts.