KARACHI, Jan 5: The Khushhal Pakistan Programme has turned out to be effective not only in bridging the gap between facilities available in urban and rural areas but has also been helpful in reviving schemes which were initiated by successive governments but which were left incomplete after changes on the political front, according to a senior official.

Sindh’s Chief Secretary, K.B. Rind, said with their completion the KPP projects had helped restore the people’s confidence on the government. The projects were also helpful in providing employment to local people, besides giving better return to agriculturists on their produce owing to better roads.

He said more development projects would be included

in Phase IV of the KPP for which the local government institutions had been asked to prepare blueprints of the schemes which needed to be undertaken.

The chief secretary said most of the schemes completed in KPPs I, II and III involved farm-to-market roads, potable water, sanitation services, electrification of villages and revival of abandoned school and hospital projects.

Sindh’s government had approved 2,452 projects to provide relief to the people of 16 districts in the province under KPP III, costing Rs3.2 billion and till December more than 2,000 had been completed, he said.

According to a report, in KPP III over 46,000 people were provided employment and in all more than 100 water and sewerage projects had been undertaken.

In Karachi different uplift schemes had been taken in hand which included on-going work to improve traffic on different roundabouts. After completion, these schemes would not only facilitate smooth flow of traffic but also give a better look to the city.

Likewise, work on laying pipelines for providing water and sewerage facilities in the Hawkesbay area was under way. Similarly, rehabilitation and resettlement of the people affected by work on Lyari Expressway project had also been addressed.

Under the scheme Rs40 million is being spent on laying water pipelines from Gulbai to Hawkesbay and Rs21 million for laying pipelines in the localities.