New infrastructure projects under public-private partnership: CM Usman Buzdar

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said Saturday that new projects of infrastructure in cities will be completed under public-private partnership (PPP) and the government would go for international bidding for the projects.

He was chairing a meeting of Board of Punjab Public-Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) at the CM House in which administrative and financial rules of the authority were approved. The decisions of the second meeting of Policy & Monitoring Board were ratified in the meeting as well. It also reviewed pace of development projects being completed in collaboration with the private sector. The chief minister said the Punjab government had taken major steps for sustainable development of the infrastructure sector of the province by devising an economic plan for urban infrastructure. The chief minister directed the authorities concerned to get optimum benefit from the opportunities of public-private partnership for new development projects. He also directed expediting work on preparation of feasibility for a treatment plant in Rawalpindi. He said that 62 km long Rawalpindi Ring Road would be completed on PPP mode at a cost of Rs61 billion.

He directed that important matters should immediately be settled. Speaking about various projects of Lahore, he mentioned that the provision of clean drinking water project in 20 pilot zones of Lahore will be completed at a cost of Rs7.25 billion; 42 vehicle fitness testing systems will be set up in Lahore at a cost of Rs.1.5 billion and Zero Waste Material Recovery Project will be completed at a sum of Rs.1.44 billion. He added that ten mega projects in Punjab would be completed under public-private partnership at a sum of Rs.79 billion.

Advisor of CM Punjab Dr Salman Shah, MPA Khadija Umer, the chief secretary, chairman Planning and Development, Senior Member Board of Revenue, experts on financial matters, secretaries concerned and other officers were also present.

Coronavirus cases: Usman Buzdar has directed setting up cattle markets 15 days before Eidul Adha outside the premises of cities and said that SOPs should immediately be finalised in this regard. A meeting of the Punjab Cabinet Committee on Coronavirus was held at CM s Office on Saturday to review measures taken to deal with the spread of the pandemic.

Usman Buzdar expressed satisfaction over the reduction of coronavirus cases in the province due to smart lockdown and said that the number of corona affected patients in Punjab was 80,297 whereas 42,854 patients had been recovered. He said during the last 24 hours, 1,341 patients were reported in Punjab. He said medicines and injections were available in abundance whereas the Punjab government had conducted more than 12,000 inspections on selling medicines at exorbitant rate. No one would be allowed to increase prices of medicines in the province, he added.

The Punjab government would launch a pilot project for reviewing the presence of the virus in sewerage water. The Punjab government, in order to take a better decision, had constituted a technical working group of renowned medical experts, he said. Provincial Ministers Dr Yasmeen Rashid, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan, the chief secretary, IG Police and secretaries were also present.