LAHORE: Punjab government has increased the budgetary allocation for Urban Development from Rs5billion to Rs13.5billion in the budget 2019-20.
“Make cities engine of economic growth through planned urbanisation and provision of clean drinking water and adequate sanitation services, affordable housing and development of open public spaces in the major urban cities of the Punjab”, is vision of the government for which it has decided to define city boundaries and streamline functional and operational alignments of Municipal Corporations, Development Authorities(DAs), Water and Sanitation Agencies(WASAs) and Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency (TEPA).
Construction of low cost houses for the poor masses, installation of consumer water meters to mitigate non-revenue water (NRW), master planning of cities and ensuring integrated cities development strategies to regulate development and direct future investments, sewerage/ waste treatment plants to be made an integral part of all future sewerage schemes, policy shift from ground water to surface water provision and attracting private sector to invest in public infrastructure project through public private partnerships are some other measures, which the government has decided to implement. The objectives of the government in the fiscal year 2019-20 included planned urbanisation to cater to the surging trend of migration from rural to urban areas, provision of clean drinking water, improved sanitation services for safe disposal of waste water, installation of waste water treatment plant to comply Punjab environmental quality standards and safe ground water from contamination, promote physical health by establishment of model sports complexes, mega infrastructure projects in urban areas for smart traffic management, construction of low cost houses to shorten the gap between surging demand and constraint supply and conservation of ground water through shifting from ground water to surface water treatment plant. Under the strategic interventions, the government in the budget 2019-20 has allocated Rs44billion for the construction of Rawalpindi Ring Road, construction of Eastern Wastewater Treatment Plant 45 MGD of Faisalabad City Phase-I (DANIDA Assisted) at an estimated cost of Rs19.330billion, a comprehensive package amounting to Rs7billion has been ear-marked for; (a) replacement of outlived sewer lines (b) sewer lines for un-served areas (c) replacement of outlived water supply pipelines and (d) water supply pipelines for un-served areas in Multan. A flyover at Nadirabad Phatak to Industrial Estate Multan will be constructed at an estimated amount of Rs1,000million to eliminate the traffic congestion in Multan city, construction of surface water treatment plant at BRBD Canal, Lahore at a cost of Rs20billion, distribution centre, rehabilitation of Old Jhal Khanaua Water Treatment PlantPhase-I at a cost of Rs6.972billion for 3 MGD water/ day will be constructed with grant in aid from JICA, remodelling of Ammar Chowk, Rawalpindi at an amount of Rs754.29million will be conducted.
