PM Imran Khan announces Rs162 development package for Karachi

F.P. Report

KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced Rs162 billion special development package for Karachi, on Saturday.

According to details, while announcing the package, Prime Minister Khan said it includes ten projects related to public transportation and seven to sewerage system.

He stressed that Pakistan’s prosperity is contingent upon the development of Karachi. Karachi’s development was the responsibility of the Sindh government but unfortunately, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that came to power after winning elections from the interior of Sindh didn’t take care of the port city, he lamented.

He added that a campaign would have to be launched to preserve water in Karachi, regretting that no heed was paid to preservation of water in the past.

He said if one takes bird’s eye view of Karachi, it looks a heap of concrete and stressed the need for working out a master plan of Karachi.

PM Khan said it becomes increasingly difficult for a government to keep up with the basic needs of the fast-growing urban sprawl. Karachi would see development once it’s sprawl will be contained, he said.

Until Karachi’s master plan is made, the government will mull over ways of how to controls things, the prime minister said, adding vertical construction should be carried out in the city, except the areas close to the airport.

He announced that the federal government would construct a university in Hyderabad, besides providing two mobile hospitals and four ambulances to Tharparkar.

KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan will announce a development package for Karachi, the business hub of the country, on Saturday (today).

According to local media reports, the newly formed Karachi Transformation Committee under the leadership of Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has finalized the proposed package.

Yesterday on March 29, the governor Imran Ismail chaired a meeting of the core group of the committee, wherein different under-construction federal government-funded development projects came under consideration.

Under the package, the federal government would release a grant of Rs8 billion to make the Green Line Bus Rapid Transit service functional to resolve issues related to public transportation. A new master of Karachi titled as “Master Plan 2047” would also be worked out.

The Lyari Expressesway would be opened to heavy traffic with a special grant of Rs2 billion to improve traffic flow on both the tracks. The prime minister would also announce setting up a plant in Korangi to reuse waste water.

The premier will be briefed in detail on ongoing federally funded development projects in the city.  He would also inaugurate the renovated Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim in Clifton today.