Rs51b for rural roads

LAHORE
THE Punjab government, through its allocation trend in the budget 2015-2016, appears to be focusing on the much needed development of communication infrastructure in the rural areas as ‘Rural Roads Programme’ got Rs51 billion, almost 74 percent of the road development budget.
Criticised for metropolis centred development and ignorant attitude towards the rural areas, the government seems to have attempted to respond to this criticism. This scheme titled Khadim-e-Punjab Rural Roads Programme (KPRRP) got Rs5 billion in the budget 2014-2015. The total expenditure of the project is Rs15 billion. The government decided to fully find this project.
The second largest allocation of Rs500 million (half a billion) went to the construction of a bridge between district Mianwali and Jand, district Attock. Funding of this project is also significant in the context of the Pak-China Economic Corridor as this bridge will facilitate that route.
The total allocation trends compliment this policy of the government as Rs28.4 billion have been allocated for rural roads widening/construction/ maintenance as compared to Rs16 billion for urban; Rs2.5 billion have been contributed to these rural roads through foreign aid. In the new schemes, Rs23 billion have been allocated to rural roads development project as opposed to Rs1.4 billion to urban ones.
The KPRRP has been extended to a parallel second phase KPRRP-II running simultaneously with KPRRP. The total expense of the KPRRP-II is set at a block allocation of Rs30 billion while half of this amount, Rs15 billion will be spent this year.
The disturbing fact, however that was the rural areas of the Southern Punjab, have been largely ignored in the schemes proposed under the rural roads programme.
The only districts of Southern Punjab that caught the government’s attention were Rahim Yar Khan and D.I.Khan. The rural road infrastructural development appeared to be focused more on Rawalpindi’s adjoining rural areas and that of Faisalabad.