ISLAMABAD: Minister for Communications Murad Saeed on Sunday reiterated the government’s resolve for bringing transparency, efficiency, maintaining standards and quality in mega infrastructure development projects and ensuring their completion within the given time frame to make them cost-effective.
Addressing a press conference, he said that the communications ministry has decided to introduce e-tendering and e-billing system within 60 days in order to bring across the board transparency and accountability according to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to eradicate the menace of corruption from the country.
The minister said that it was also decided to conduct the third-party audit of six mega development projects in the first phase, adding that the cost of these projects had witnessed unprecedented increase and had caused loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.
Murad Saeed said that 34 projects had witnessed an increase in their cost due to delay in the work and completion within the given time frame, adding that the reasons behind the delay in these projects would be determined and the responsibilities will be fixed.
In order to implement Prime Minister’s austerity drive, the communications ministry would auction all its 42 luxury vehicles along with 177 others, which were used by the high ranking officials of the ministry and would save Rs30 million used for the maintenance of these vehicles.
The minister further informed that the auction process of these luxury vehicles would be completed within a week, besides opening two guest houses for the general public as tourist resorts after upgrading these places in collaboration with the private sector on a build, operate and transfer basis (BOT).
He said that the lake in front of these guest houses would also be used for the promotion of water sports and revenue generation, adding that an anti-encroachment campaign would also be launched to free the properties and lands of national highways and motorways.
The minister said that his ministry would also contribute in prime minister’s billion tree programme in collaboration with other stakeholders, adding that special measures would also be put on place to ensure the survival of these trees. He said that survival audit would also be conducted for these plants.
The minister said that in future, the developmental projects would be initiated on BOT and public-private partnership mode keeping focus on the agriculture development, tourism promotion and ensuring environmental protection.
The communications’ minister further revealed that initiation of the development projects would help in providing job opportunities to the skilled and semi-skilled workforce in the country which would also help in fulfilling the PM’s 10 million job creation vision.
Murad Saeed informed that the ministry would also launch a mobile application within 45 days, which would provide the details of the projects, including their cost and time of completion and amount released for the projects in order to ensure transparency, enhance a sense of ownership in the general public.
NHA would also launch another mobile phone application ‘Pasban’, which would keep updated the road users about the weather and road conditions across the country to facilitate the passengers as well as make their journey more safe and square.
He said that NHA had also been working in two development projects under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), adding that their completion within the given time would be ensured by maintaining the quality of the work.
