KARACHI, June 8: The adviser to chief minister for local government, Wasim Akhtar, has said that the size of Hyderabad Development Package announced by the President would be got increased from Rs10.5 to Rs15 billion to ensure provision of all basic facilities to the people of Hyderabad district.

He was speaking at a ceremony held for signing Memorandum of Understanding between DCO Hyderabad and M/s. Osmani and Company (Pvt) Ltd, regarding provision of consultancy services for development works of Hyderabad Development Package at his office here on Wednesday.

Under this project, he said, the priority would be given to sewerage works in the district as this problem had always caused damage to infrastructure. He said to ensure transparent utilization of development funds and to achieve targeted result, a mechanism of check and balance would be adopted.

Waseem Akhtar pointed out that according to a rough estimate, out of Rs10.5 billion, Rs4 billion would be shared among the local people and Rs6 billion would be spent on purchase of building materials from the local and external.

As such this project would not only open the new avenue of the job opportunity but also encourage the local markets and business activities to flourish to the benefit of people of the district.

Defending the Sindh government’s decision to carve out new districts out of Hyderabad, the adviser said that the purpose of new districts was to decentralize the power and development resources and to ensure development of other deserving areas of the defunct Hyderabad district.

He said the government had decided to provide due share of funds from President’s Development Package for Hyderabad to all the new districts.

The adviser expressed hope that with the implementation of President Development Package the development scenario of Hyderabad including all the three new districts would be revolutionary changed within five to 10 years.

Mr Waseem said that a new housing department had been formed within the Sindh government to revive the old housing schemes and to initiate new ones to provide low-cost housing facilities and raise the living standard of common people.

He said it was due to the fair policies adopted by the present government that foreign investors were showing interest in housing sector. The Sindh government had prepared a strategy to attract investment for betterment of common people, he added.

The adviser said that Sindh government had also planned to encourage existing industries by providing them basic facilities of infrastructure, marketing and tax holiday.

Earlier briefing the adviser, Hyderabad District Coordination Officer said that the consulting company would design the project for defunct Hyderabad district within seven months and get the project works completed within 38 months.

He said that the project would cover all the three new districts namely Matiari, Tando Muhammad Khan and Tando Allah carved out of defunct Hyderabad district. —APP/PPI