ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Tuesday said his government’s priority was completion of mega development projects and to rid the country of its chronic load shedding problem by 2017.
Addressing the ground breaking of the 24-km signal free corridor of Islamabad Expressway, the Prime Minister said besides development of infrastructure, the government was equally concentrating on the energy-related projects.
The around Rs 22 billion project of widening the existing Expressway to 10-lane signal-free road would serve as a major link of Federal Capital with the rest of the country through the Grand Trunk road, shorten the travel time and help cut fuel costs.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said “Pakistan today was at a take-off position, with investment pledges of US 46 billion under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.”
He said funding for development projects like Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro were being made without disturbing the annual Public Sector Development Program. He rejected claims of the critics of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro who said that funds for the project were diverted from other projects.
The Prime Minister said his government was giving equal importance to addressing the problem of loadshedding and said this year there was less loadshedding as compared to the last year.
He mentioned a number of ongoing projects including the 960 MW Neelum Jhelum, 1400MW Tarbella-IV and 1000MW by LNG that would help address the issue. He said his government has the credit of lowering the tariff of per unit of electricity by Rs 5.32.
The Prime Minister mentioned the up-gradation of the M-2 Motorway, that needed its mandatory 10-year maintenance, but was neglected and his government had to undertake the project. He said the needful maintenance of the M-2 should have been done in 2008.
He expressed satisfaction over the ground-breaking of the long awaited signal-free project of the Expressway and termed it another significant addition to mega development projects of the capital.
He said the project was very important as the widening of Expressway from Zero Point to Rawat would add more lanes than the motorway.
Prime Minister Sharif emphasized on carrying out the project on international standards and said Islamabad would experience a remarkable improvement in infrastructure in next two to three years.
The Prime Minister also announced plans for linking Rawat with the M-2 Motorway to provide an alternative route to Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
