Karachiites will witness real development in city: Asad Umar

KARACHI: The Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar has said Prime Minister Imran Khan is keen to ensure progress on the uplift schemes in Karachi and the people will see actual development taking place in the city.

The federal minister stated this on Saturday as he along with Sindh Governor Imran Ismail launched the at-grade development works at Naumiash Underpass as part of Green Line section of Bus Rapid Transit Service (BRTS) the corridor.

Umar said the Green Line BRTS would start operation in Karachi by the mid of next year. He said that needy of people of Sindh were given Rs 65 billion under the Ehsaas programme.

He said the prime minister in the coming weeks would review all the federally funded development projects including those of Karachi. Asad Umar said that five mega development projects in Karachi were mainly the responsibility of the federal government and work was expeditiously underway to implement them. Besides BRTS, another federal government project was reconstruction and de-silting of storm water drains in the city so that Karachi may not suffer a repeat of the last monsoon rains, he said.

Umar said the Sindh government had to remove encroachments around the storm water drains and to provide alternative accommodation and the centre would provide financial assistance to carry out this task.

He said that negotiations were taking place with the Sindh government for developing the two islands off the coast of Karachi. “The federation will not run away with these islands,” he said. He said any development there would generate employment opportunities and revenue for people of Sindh.

He said the Opposition political parties by holding their public meeting in Peshawar would achieve nothing except endangering the health and livelihood of people there.

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail said the project to develop the islands off the coast of Karachi is expected to attract investment to the tune of USD 50 billion and job opportunities would be generated for around 1,50,000 people. He said the project included a fish market of international standards to facilitate the local fishermen.

The at-grade development works launched jointly the Federal minister and Sindh governor comprised three-lane roads on both sides and link road and tree planation was also done to beautify the site.