Muhammad Asad
ISLAMABAD: Most of the work on CPEC infrastructural Projects has been done during PTI’s era. It was observed by Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar during a news conference in Islamabad on Friday.
Asad Umar said that the construction work on the projects under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was in full swing and the impression that the work had got slow momentum during PTI government is incorrect. Asad was of the view that most of the energy projects were started during the tenure of previous government. The projects producing 3,340 Megawatts energy was completed during PML-N government while about 5,864 Megawatts of power projects were completed during PTI’s government. According to him, projects producing 1824 Megawatts energy has been initiated by the incumbent government and constructional work is in progress on them.
Umar claimed that the bulk of the work of infrastructural projects particularly road network under CPEC was done during PTI government.
While digging the details, Umar said that previous government constructed total road networks of about 394 kilometers including Motorways and highways, while PTI government undertook construction of about 410 Km road network across the country.
While sharing the details of PTI endeavors regarding CPEC projects, Umar said that previous government had ignored the western route of the corridor which was initiated by the PTI government.
He said that government has kicked off the constructional work on Quetta-Khuzdar road while allocating requisite funds under Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) in budget 2021-2022.According to Umar, DI Khan- Zhob and Zhob-Quetta road has been approved by the government and negotiations for the loan are currently underway.
According to him, the central part of CPEC project in Sindh-Balochistan region is 146 km Hoshab-Awaran road, which has been approved by the government and contractors are being mobilized by the authorities. While making brief account of PTI government performance in CPEC domain, Umar said that the incumbent government has approved the construction of 460 km long Karachi-Quetta-Chaman road along side DI-Khan Peshawar motorway, Nokandi-Mushkel road, Mushkel-Panjgur road and Awaran-Jhal Jao road.
Umar said that after completion of construction phase, the government would enter the investment phase in a wide range of sectors including industrialization, agriculture, livestock, social services and science and technology. According to him, various Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under CPEC projects provide incentivized opportunities for investment to local as well as foreign investors. According to Asad Umar, government is working to take help from Chinese experts in agriculture and livestock sectors for increasing per acre production of corps and elimination of foot and mouth diseases in the animals so the meat industry can be developed according to international standards.
