Pakistan is about to launch a programme of work to comprehensively upgrade its South Punjab region, The Express Tribune reports.
Pakistan is about to launch a programme of work to comprehensively upgrade its South Punjab region, The Express Tribune reports.
The $3.2bn package will include some 122 schemes to improve transport, power supplies and fibre-optics, as well as universities.
A little over $1bn will be spent on 44 new schemes proposed by the government of Punjab. A number of projects worth $750m were already under construction, and 21 schemes worth $290m were already approved. These are being paid for by the federal government, using money allocated to the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
About five projects with a total value of $900m will be procured as public–private partnerships.
Among the projects included in the programme will be:
- The establishment of the South Punjab Information Technology Zone at Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering & Information Technology and the establishment of a Skill Development Centre at Islamia University;
- An Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Oncology will be set up at Sheikh Zayed Medical College in Rahim Yar Khan;
- A plan to electrify 600,000 households using microgrids and individual solar home systems with battery storage;
- The expansion of a 90km stretch of the N-70 and the construction of the DG Khan southern bypass;
- Work to turn a 139km road running along the Indus Valley from Muzaffargarh to Taranda Muhammad Panah into a dual carriageway;
- Bridges will be built over the River Chenab to connect Khan Garh with Shujaabad, Shaher Sultan with Jalalpur Pirwala and Alipur with Jalalpur Pirwala;
- A dam and canal will be built on Kaha Hill Torrent to reclaim waterlogged agriculture land and expand cotton;
- A 500kV substation will be constructed at Vehari to improve electricity distribution.
The package has been finalised with input from the government of Punjab, the South Punjab Secretariat and was presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan last week during his visit to Lahore.
South Punjab, or Saraikistan as it is also known, is a proposed province whose creation is presently a controversial subject in Pakistan. The infrastructure work is intended to redress what Prime Minister Khan called the “historical injustice” of the region’s underdevelopment.
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