MUZAFFARGARH, Sept 4: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has announced that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government will launch a Multan-Dera Ghazi Khan motorway project.
He said this at the inaugural ceremony of a new bridge on the Chenab river on Thursday. Mr Gilani said the bridge, earlier known as Chenab bridge, would be called Sher Shah bridge.
He said the old bridge was made in 1894, and now the new bridge would connect Punjab and Balochistan with each other.
The prime minister said the work was under way on Multan-Faisalabad motorway, and the city of saints would be connected with DG Khan through a motorway. He, however, did not mention any date about the start of the project.
Mr Gilani said his government would provide a record number of jobs to youths as the PPP believed that every person should have his or her source of income. He said he had spent years in prison during the tenure of the previous government for providing jobs to the people.
He said women health workers would be appointed and basic health units and utility stores would be launched by this government at union council level.
On the demand of Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Jamshed Dasti, the prime minister said he had ordered the irrigation officials to compensate the formers who had lost their lands in river erosion in the district. The MNA claims that 60 villages had been eaten up by the erosion. He said the government would undertake many development projects after the presidential election on Sept 6.
Talking to journalists, Mr Gilani said the PPP government was ready to talk to representatives of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas regarding operation in the tribal areas. He said he had condemned the attack of Nato forces in Waziristan.
Mr Gilani landed at the helipad at 3pm amid tight security. Three helicopters landed at the helipads and the officials did not know that in which chopper the prime minister was traveling in. PPP MNAs Dasti and Mian Mohsin Ali Qureshi and MPA Irshad Sial welcomed Mr Gilani.
Earlier, addressing the ceremony, MNA Dasti demanded local people be provided jobs in the Pak Arab Refinery Company and the Kot Addu Power Company. MNA Mohsin Ali Qureshi demanded PPP workers be given jobs. The project of Chenab bridge began in 2005 and the contractor company was to complete the scheme in Aug 2007, but it failed to do so because of flooding. Later it was said that the bridge would be opened on Dec 31, 2007. After December last, it was announced that the bridge was in its final stage and would be opened on Aug 14, 2008.
The new bridge will facilitate the traffic traveling to Multan and upper Punjab district from Balochistan and the NWFP besides Muzaffargarh, Layyah, DG Khan and Rajanpur.