ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday performed the groundbreaking of 69 kilometre-long Sialkot-Kharian motorway project.
Speaking on the occasion, the prime minister said this is an important and viable motorway project as will promote connectivity of the industrial area with the rest of the country.
The prime minister said it is important to incentivize the industrial sector for wealth creation which will help retiring the country’s debt. He said the government is focusing on ease of doing business and hurdles in the way of Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) are being removed.
The prime minister welcomed the idea of involving the private sector in the motorway project, saying this will help the government divert resources to other sectors. He expressed confidence that more private capital will flow into the road infrastructure projects in future.
PM Imran Khan said that the Swat motorway has opened the whole area for tourism. He said Pakistan has immense potential for tourism but it was not developed in the past. He maintained projects such as second phase of Swat motorway and Dir Motorway will help encourage both domestic and foreign tourism at the picturesque places.
Earlier, Minister for Communications Murad Saeed gave a detailed overview of the road infrastructure projects executed over the last three years.
He said they have built 1,753 kilometres of roads as compared to 645 kilometres of roads constructed by the PML-N in three years. He said they plan to start 19 more road infrastructure projects including Kharian-Rawalpindi motorway and Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway during the current fiscal year. He said bids have been received for the construction of second phase of Swat motorway and work on Dir motorway will also be started this year.
The minister said National Highway Authority is also focusing on the maintenance and repair of existing road infrastructure. He said the revenue of NHA has been increased by Rs87 billion and they have recovered land worth Rs5 billion.
