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ISLAMABAD: The federal coalition has assured Sindh government of maximum support in the completion of major development projects in the province.
The assurance came during a meeting between Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal and Sindh Chief Syed Murad Ali Shah here on Thursday.
The meeting discussed in detail Sindh’s development projects under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP), including Greater Karachi Water Supply Project (K-4), Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) and Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway, said a statement.
CM Shah told the federal minister that “there was no progress on KCR as the previous government did not pay heed to the important project”.
The previous government deliberately ignored development plans of Sindh due to political reasons, and the people of Sindh suffered a lot as a result, he said.
He noted that the new coalition government at the Centre had an experienced team, which would deliver results and come up to the expectations of the masses.
Ahsan Iqbal assured the CM that being in a coalition government, it was responsibility of all partners to work jointly in meeting challenges and the federal government would assist the Sindh government in the completion of the critically important projects, particularly the KCR and Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway. The KCR was among the top priorities of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, he told Mr Shah.
Mr Iqbal pointed out that success of CPEC’s Thar project was an example of mutual cooperation. He said the construction work on Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway needed to be expedited in order to urgently ease travel problems on the important route.
The minister deplored that nine industrial zones which were supposed to be made operational by 2020 had been delayed significantly because of incompetence of the previous government and now the first industrial zone would be started in 2024, second in 2025 and third in 2027.
He said the coalition government would tackle current challenges with mutual understanding. “The challenges are big but we have to complete the projects, which remained neglected by the previous government, within the stipulated time,” he added.
Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2022
