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KARACHI, Feb 6: The city government is initiating new projects worth Rs1.77 billion during the current month and will ensure expeditious work on these projects which would be launched after Ashura.
City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal will lay foundation stones of the projects for which tenders have already been invited and final approval accorded. These projects include the repair and improvement of nullahs in Islam Nagar, Orangi (Rs16.7 million), construction and repair of the nullah from Siddique Abad to Gulzar-i-Mohammad Colony, Orangi (Rs62 million) and construction and repair of the nullah in Mianwali Colony (Rs27.5 million).
The other projects are a traffic bridge from Sharea Faisal to Mehmoodabad via Channesar Halt (Rs942.9 million), an underpass at Ibne Seena Road, Nazimabad Chowrangi No-2 (Rs329.5 million), a bridge linking Tipu Sultan Road with Sharea Faisal (Rs 156.4 million), road linking Teen Hatti with Sharea Faisal (Rs 126.7 million), construction of Banaras Chowk-Pirabad section of Manghopir Road (Rs8.8 million), a bridge near the National Stadium (Rs399.5 million) and improvement of municipal waste disposal system (Rs6.5 million).
The city nazim had given his approval to these projects over the past three months. After their approval from the DDWP also, these projects are now ready to be executed.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT: City Nazim Mustafa Kamal has said that foreign investors are taking keen interest in making investments in Karachi.
He was talking to the Ambassador of France Regis de Belenet who called on him here on Monday. French Counsel General Pierre Seillan was also present at the meeting.
Mr Kamal told the diplomats that envoys from several developed countries had been in constant touch with the city government viz-a-viz investment. He hoped that Karachi would very soon become a major centre of trade activities in the region.
The city nazim welcomed the French firms which had shown their interest in making investments in the city, and said that talks with two French companies, intending to set up a vehicle factory and a water treatment plant, were under way.
He told the diplomats that the city government was focusing on improving the infrastructure of the city. The roads and sanitary conditions could not be improved until the water and sewerage system was streamlined, he observed, adding that the city government had attached priority to water and sewerage sectors. He said that road-cleaning machinery worth Rs650 million had now been purchased for the first time in the history of Karachi.
Mustafa Kamal told the French visitors that he was striving hard to replace the negative image of the city with a positive one and make Karachi a peaceful and ideal city for foreign investment. The efforts were proving successful, he added.
The city nazim also briefed that French envoy about the uplift schemes, particularly those requiring foreign investment, being executed in the city.
The French ambassador told the nazim that the civil engineering sector was particularly attractive to French firms. He said that a French firm wanted to set up a vehicle plant with a capacity of producing 15,000 vehicles.
He said that many more French companies were interested in make investment in Karachi in different sectors.
—PPI
