GUJRAT: Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on Friday laid foundation stone of three mega uplift schemes worth Rs13 billion in his hometown.

The schemes include a 29-kilometre-long expressway linking Gujrat city with Kharian-Sambrial Motorway at a cost of around Rs9.11bn, as well as two main flyovers at the entrance of Gujrat city from the river Chenab side, that will cost around Rs4bn, a highways department official says.

Flanked by his son MNA Moonis Elahi and nephew MNA Hussain Elahi, the chief minister was briefed by communication and works secretary Mujahid Sher Dil on the salient features of these uplift schemes.

One of the flyovers is being built over Kathala railway crossing on old GT road and the other over the city’s main entrance at Bypass Chowk, near the river Chenab bridge. The bridge will link the national highway with an under-construction 35km-long Samman-Dinga road. The scheme is being executed by the federal government.

Official sources say both flyover had actually been approved by the federal government around two years ago as a part of Samman-Dinga road project, on the recommendation of MNA Moonis Elahi. However due to paucity of funds the work could not be started on these flyovers.

They say after Chaudhry Parvez Elahi became chief minister, Punjab government approved the funding for these flyovers. Punjab’s communication and works department was the executing agency of these projects, though these were funded by the federal government initially.

Talking to local reporters on the occasion, CM Elahi criticised the previous Punjab government of the PML-N for not giving Gujrat it’s due share in the infrastructural development. He said after becoming a divisional headquarter, the city would now be considered on a par with other developed cities of Punjab.

Moonis said the expressway would facilitate local traders in speedy transportation of their consignments through a direct link to the motorway. The expressway will connect M11motorway from Jalalpur Jattan interchange near Lakhanwal village and would be a dual carriageway that might also be fenced later on.

DEMO: Scores of the local businessmen staged a protest demonstration against the highways department for forcible acquisition of land for the construction of an expressway linking Gujrat city with Kharian-Sambrial motorway.

A protest camp was organised at the old GT road of the city on Thursday by a former union council chairman from Gujrat city Yousaf Gull against the high handedness of the highways department and local administration regarding the acquisition of land.

Representatives from various civil society organisations including the lawyers, traders and industrialists gathered at the protest camp to lodge a protest against the forcible acquisition of precious piece of land.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2022