SANGLA HILL: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said his government will continue to pursue its agenda of progress and those creating hurdles in the way of development will fail.

“This is an agenda for the country’s development. Some people are trying to stop this. But it will not stop as the nation is with Nawaz Sharif and we will continue to pursue the agenda of development,” the prime minister said while addressing a public meeting here on Friday after inaugurating the Sangla Hill interchange at Faisalabad-Pindi Bhatian Motorway.

Referring to uplift projects initiated or completed over the past three years, he said: “Those who are creating hurdles do not want to see end of loadshedding and provision of cheap electricity, but their agenda will fail and ours will succeed.”

Mr Sharif accused the previous governments of doing nothing to overcome the energy crisis and claimed that the Pakistan Railways and Pakistan International Airlines had now been revived after a long period of decline.

“We are here to serve you. We are giving laptops to the youth, constructing schools and hospitals,” he said, adding that the government intended to construct 50 state-of-the-art and fully equipped hospitals across the country.

Mr Sharif assured the people that gas would be provided to Sangla Hill and villages in the vicinity. He announced restoration of an underpass in Sangla Hill at the Lahore-Faisalabad railway track and said work on it would begin soon.

A 250-bed hospital would be built in Nankana Sahib, he said, adding that Faisalabad-Sahinawala ex­press­way would be extended up to Sangla Hill and road between Sangla Hill interchange and Tibba Shah Behlol would be doubled.

Minister for Kashmir Affairs Barjees Tahir also addressed the public meeting.

Completed at a cost of Rs299.2 million, the Sangla Hill interchange will provide the people of the area an easy access to Lahore, Islamabad, Sargodha, Chiniot, Chak Jhumra, Faisalabad and Jhang. It will also help the traffic on Lahore, Sheikhupura and Faisalabad roads to easily move to Pindi Bhatian-Faisalabad Motorway.

Trucks and other vehicles going to and from an under-construction industrial zone in Faisalabad will also benefit from the interchange. The total stretch of the interchange is 3.7 kilometres, which also comprises two toll plazas and a traffic control building.

The construction of an interchange at Sangla Hill had been a longstanding demand of the locals and its completion would help ease travel problems of thousands of people, besides paving the way for economic prosperity through agricultural and industrial development.

Published in Dawn November 12th, 2016