GUJRAT: The local administration has sought establishment of Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) in Gujrat for maintenance of the parks and greenbelts in the city as a proposal has already been sent to Punjab government in this regard.

Official sources said the maintenance of parks and greenbelts in the city had been a daunting task for the civic authorities.

They said Gujrat Metropolitan Corporation (GtMC) had so far been unable to properly look after these facilities because of shortage of human resource and technical staff, while local parks and greenbelts were being neglected since long.

Currently, the city has at least four major parks, including the Shahbaz Sharif Park, spreading over 90 acres, the biggest in Gujranwala region.

Besides, there is at least 46-kilometre-long infrastructure of greenbelts in various parts of the city, including a 14-kilometer-long stretch along the old GT Road passing through the city right from Kathala railway crossing to the Rehmania Bridge over Bhimbher storm water channel.

Since the city’s population has swelled to around 0.5 million, lifting of solid waste and maintaining the sanitation system of the city have become a huge task for the GtMC, prompting the local administration to propose the establishment of PHA in Gujrat.

The sources said senior PML-Q leader and federal minister for water resources Chaudhry Moonis Elahi had been briefed by the administration as well as the civic agencies on the need for setting up PHA in the city.

Following the briefing, Mr Elahi had directed the authorities concerned to prepare a concrete proposal for the purpose, they added.

In this connection, Gujrat Deputy Commissioner Mehtab Waseem Azhar recently sent a summary to Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, seeking approval for establishment of Gujrat PHA.

The DC said in the summary that since Gujrat had been an important part of the ‘golden industrial triangle’ of Pakistan and had already become a metropolitan city of Punjab, there was a dire need to establish PHA here as the local civic agencies lacked the capacity to maintain parks and greenbelts in the city.

He claimed Gujrat PHA would be a self-sustaining entity as annual expected expenditures of the agency would be around Rs63 million, while it would have an estimated income of around Rs70m.

Earlier, the local administration had also proposed the establishment of Gujrat Solid Waste Management Company, keeping in view the rising population, urbanisation trends and industrial growth of the city.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2021