LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif has said the project has been completed to change 105 outdated and defunct tube wells in the provincial metropolis.
He expressed these views while addressing the ceremony held in Model Town on the completion of project of changing 105 tube wells in Lahore in collaboration with JICA for providing clean drinking water to the masses
“The project has been completed in cooperation with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to provide clean drinking water to the people. Due to the completion of this project, the citizens of Lahore are getting arsenic-free clean water and it has been completed in a period of 18 months with a cost of Rs2.30 billion,” the chief minister said. “We are thankful to the government of Japan for extending its cooperation,” he added.
Provincial Ministers Khawaja Imran Nazir, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, Malik Nadeem Kamran, Punjab Government Spokesman Malik Ahmed Khan, PML-N Leader Khawaja Ahmed Hasaan, Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Takashi Kurai and his team members, including the chief secretary and other high officials, were present on the occasion.
Addressing the ceremony, the chief minister said that a clean drinking water supply scheme has been completed with a cost of Rs13 billion in Faisalabad, and disclosed that another scheme worth Rs14 billion is being launched soon. “Turkish cooperation has also been sought for the programme of providing clean drinking water,” he added.
Replying to different questions put forth by the media, the chief minister said that chief justice of Pakistan visited Mayo Hospital and “we welcome him”.
Replying to another question, CM Shehbaz said that Punjab government utilised its resources for completing the metro projects in Lahore, Rawalpindi-Islamabad and Multan. “Punjab government has spent Rs42 billion on Rawalpindi Metro Bus Project while another amount of Rs20 billion has been spent on Multan Metro Bus Project. Contrary to that, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has taken a loan from the Asian Development Bank for its metro bus project,” he added.
The chief minister further said that first IT university is going to be completed soon in Rahim Yar Khan with a cost of billions of rupees. Similarly, dual carriageway is being constructed from Khanewal to Lodhran with a cost of Rs24 billion, and Rs15 billion is allocated for Muzaffargarh-DG Khan Road.
“These are national highways which are being developed through the resources of the provincial government,” he added.
He also went on to say that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was welcome to launch a corruption probe into the Multan Metro Bus project. The CM stated that corruption accusations against him were dismissed by the authorities.
The Japanese ambassador congratulated the people for completion of the project in collaboration with JICA and said that economic cooperation exists between Pakistan and Japan. “We shall further extend this cooperation with Pakistan in water and other sectors,” he concluded.