Although Rawalpindi Division Commissioner Khalid Saood Chaudhry has directed authorities concerned to finish the Pirwadhai Flyover Project by April 30, the mega project is likely to end by May 15, sources said.

Khalid visited the site of all three under construction mega projects in the city to review work progress. The commissioner was briefed about the Sixth Road Flyover Project and was informed that the work would be completed by April 25 to April 30. Earlier, the project completion date was given as January 24, which has already been missed by three months. Additionally, the roads under Pirwadhai Flyover are still under construction. Sources said that keeping in view the pace of work, the project was more likely to be completed by May 15 rather than April 30. Khalid has, however, ordered the authorities concerned to wrap up the construction work by April 30 at every cost. Read more

RAWALPINDI, March 14: The Punjab government’s race to complete several road projects before its imminent departure has left Rawalpindi residents struggling with traffic, construction and congestion while government departments offer competing explanations for the delays.

Inaugurating the 6th Road Flyover on January 10, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif promised that its service roads would be open by February 10. Nearly a month later, they are still unusable, causing major inconvenience to residents and commuters, as official attention has shifted to the Pirwadhai Mor Flyover, where the construction company, the National Logistic Cell, and the Punjab Highway Department have all been busy.

The Highway Department has borne the brunt of residents’ anger. According to an official, however, it was the provincial government that insisted that work on the Pirwadhai Mor Flyover be completed “on a priority basis.” “They wanted it to be done on time for the PML-N government to inaugurate the flyover,” the official, who requested anonymity, claimed.

Jamshaid Khan, the department’s superintending engineer, had a different explanation, shifting the blame for slow progress on 6th Road to the Water and Sanitation Agency. “Work on the service roads was slowed down because Wasa had to shift water supply lines and build a mullah,” he said. Claiming that Wasa’s work had been completed, he said the Highway Department would “soon” finish the service road. Read more

LAHORE – Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that the provincial government has awarded proprietary rights to over 1.7 million dwellers of 3,460 slums.

During a meeting on regarding the pace of awarding proprietary rights to the residents of Katchi Abadis in the province, the CM said that over the last 27 years only 825 slums were notified while the present government had notified 3460 Katchi Abadis in a short period and awarded proprietary rights to their dwellers. He said that it was first time in the history of the province that proprietary rights had been awarded under joint partnership to husband and wife in Katchi Abadis and they had been made equal partners in property

The CM said a total of 180725 Kanal land has been given to residents of Katchi Abadis on ownership basis. He said that no fee had been charged from widows or orphans while a fee of Rs172 per Marla had been charged from others. He said that it is for the first time that Punjab government has awarded proprietary rights to the residents of Katchi Abadis in urban as well as rural areas. He said that Punjab government of PML-N had always taken solid measures for the betterment of backward and low-income segment of the society and awarding of ownership rights to the residents of Katchi Abadis is a part of this policy. The CM also issued instructions for setting up a committee for the immediate disposal of the pending cases which would present its report within two days after making a case to case review. The CM while acknowledging the efficiency of the staff of Directorate General Katchi Abadis announced two months’ basic pay for them as honorarium. The CM also appreciated the performance of Senior Member Board of Revenue, Sami Saeed, Member Colonies Khawaja Shamail, Director General Katchi Abadis and staff of the department and said that the officers have set a noble example of dutifulness by working round the clock for this project of public welfare. Read more

LAHORE, March 3: The Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency on Sunday evening opened the Kalma Chowk dual-underpass project after Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated it.

The project worth Rs1.7 billion was launched in the first week of December last year by Tepa after the government decided to undertake it to ease traffic flow.

Various finishing works were going on even after the opening for routine traffic around 7pm.

“After the CM inaugurated the project, we have opened the underpasses for light and heavy traffic,” Tepa Chief Engineer Saeed Akhtar told Dawn. He said the officials concerned would complete the minor works in the next couple of days. Read more

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday ordered all divisional commissioners to take stern action against land grabbers across the province. The CM had also taken strict notice of illegal grabbing of 400 kanals of land owned by an expatriate Pakistani in Donga Bonga (Bahawalnagar). He directed the Commissioner Sahiwal Division Barrister Nabeel Awan to submit a report after probing the matter. Read more

LAHORE, Jan 28: Scores of residents staged a protest demonstration against the Punjab government for planning demolition of as many as 500 houses in Chaudhry Colony Katchi Abadi (LOS-Shama) in order to construct a road linking Ferozepur Road along the drain.

The protesters, including women, blocked the road by burning tyres and chanted slogans against Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Speaking on the occasion, Federation of Katchi Abadis Lahore (FKAL) President Rana Abdul Sattar Nasir said since the residents were given ownership rights in 1985 after their colony was declared a Katchi Abadi in 1960, the authorities had no right to demolish their houses.

He warned the Punjab government to drop its plan of demolishing Chaudhry Colony, otherwise the residents would have no option but to surround the CM’s house. Read more

RAWALPINDI – Closure of Rehmanabad Chowk as part of 6th Road flyover project has multiplied the miseries of common man and particularly students’ community.

The closure of this Chowk on the pretext of construction of 6th road fly over has caused enormous embarrassment to pedestrians like us as we have no bikes and cars to proceed to our offices and shopping centers where we are working in various capacities ranging from workers, sales men and lower staff, said a group of employees of shopping plazas and other business centers while standing on Rehman Abad chowk.

“We have now to tread a long distance to reach our duty destinations located in commercial market. This way we have to suffer heavily in terms of time as we have to open our shops early in the morning,” they added.

“We are studying in the schools and colleges functioning in the locality of commercial market. Ahead of construction of fly over we used to reach our schools in time by crossing the road at Rehman Abad chowk but now it takes us half an hour more to join our classes as we have to cover a long distance on Murree road due to closure of Rehman Abad chowk, said a group of students.

The citizens have demanded of the concerned authorities to immediately open Rehman Abad chowk otherwise they will be forced to hold protest demonstrations. Read more

LAHORE, Jan 6: The Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (TEPA) is likely to accomplish the Rs30 billion worth of Metro Bus System (MBS) Project by Jan 20.

The agency, a subsidiary of the Lahore Development Authority, also plans to get the project inaugurated soon after its completion.

Sources told Dawn though LDA, TEPA and six contractors of good repute — National Logistic Cell (NLC), Makksons, Sarwar and Company and two joint ventures of SKB and Al-Bayrek and ZKB and Reliable — were scheduled to complete the project by Jan 31, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif pushed the officials to complete it by Jan 20.

They said keeping in view CM’s desire, the officials started executing various project activities on a fast track from last month.

At present, the sources said the entire 27-km dedicated bus pathway except three small portions, from Niazi Chowk to Shahdara measuring about 2-km, Kalma Chowk and Model Town underpasses, had been completed. Though the remaining stretch (from Niazi Chowk to Shahdara) and the dedicated overhead bridge for buses at Ravi River would be completed later, work on the aforementioned two small portions (Kalma Chowk and Model Town underpasses) would be completed by Jan 9.

They said keeping in view the current construction scenario, the MBS would be ready for bus operation by Jan 20.

They said the dedicated bus pathway had been designed in a way that it could be even used for running a train by laying rail track on it. “If we plan to lay rail track on this long corridor, this could carry its load and operations as well. However, the government only planned to ply buses at the moment,” an official said. Read more

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Sunday announced that the Metro Bus project was in the final stages of completion, adding that modern and comfortable metro buses would soon be made operational for the benefit of the masses. Speaking to journalists after visiting various sections of the Metro Bus project, the chief minister said that the project would be completed within the stipulated period of 11 months, adding that a similar project took two years for completion in Turkey. Shahbaz further said that he was satisfied with the successful test launch of the Metro Bus, adding that Metro Bus was a revolutionary effort in changing the transport system of the city.

The chief minister lauded the efforts of construction workers who were working round-the-clock during winters to finish the mega-project. He further said that the Metro Bus project was a historic achievement by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in Punjab.  Read more

English: Nawaz Sharif meets envoy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* International firm vows to increase cooperation with Punjab govt in IT sector

* CM reviews progress on Ashiana housing project 

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that the development in the IT sector is the need of the hour and the Punjab government has launched revolutionary programmes for the promotion of information technology and the province would be made a “Silicon Valley”, a reference to the hi-tech industries hub in the US.

The chief minister said this while talking to the world-renowned IT company Teradata Corporation’s Chief Technical Officer Stephen Brobst on Saturday. Punjab Information Technology Board Chairman Dr Umar Saif and other IT experts were also present in the meeting. The chief minister said that the Punjab government is providing facilities and incentives to international IT companies for investment in the province, and due to this reason renowned international companies are making huge investment in Punjab. Citing the steps taken by the provincial government, he said that Punjab government has established IT labs in 4,300 high schools at a cost of Rs 5 billion, while modern education is being imparted to both girls and boys in Danish Schools through Smart Board.  Read more