KASUR, Oct 29 Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Friday inaugurated the Lahore-Kasur-Gandasingh Road which has been completed at a cost of over Rs5 billion.

The foundation stone of the 52.95-kilometre road was laid by former president Pervez Musharraf in 2005, but the project was delayed for one reason or another.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister claimed the project had been put on the backburner due to corruption and negligence, and the PML-N government after coming into power brought to book a number of contractors and C&W officials besides blacklisting the companies involved in irregularities.

In 2008, he said, the condition of the road was miserable and three contractors - one of them a foreign company -- were assigned the task of completing the project but they tainted their credibility with corruption and got a stay order from court.

He said this mega project, which was envisaged as a trade route between Pakistan and India, was symbolic of the present government's good intentions and zero tolerance against corruption. He said 52,000 saplings had been planted on the greenbelt along the road.

The chief minister said it was a wrong notion that he was strict with bureaucrats, saying he was against the corrupt and inefficient people. He awarded commendation certificates to Lahore Commissioner Khusro Pervaiz and C&W Secretary Azam Suleman. He also announced Rs500,000 for the labourers who worked efficiently to complete the road.

He also announced awards for Kasur DPO Gohar Nafees, DCO Malik Jahanzeb Awan and officials of the C&W and forest departments, and the three construction companies.

Meanwhile, the general public faced a great deal of inconvenience as the traffic police were alerted early in the morning about the chief minister's visit. He arrived two hours late than the scheduled time of 10am.

It is learnt that as the chief minister was leaving the venue, Infrastructure Secretary Khwaja Imran slapped a sub-inspector for coming in front of the secretary's vehicle.