ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that it is important to incentivise the industrial sector for wealth creation which will help retire the country’s debt, adding that the government is focusing on ease of doing business and hurdles in the way of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are being removed.
Prime Minister Khan said this while addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of sixty-nine kilometres long Sialkot-Kharian Motorway project on Thursday.
The prime minister said this is an important and viable motorway project as it will promote connectivity of the industrial area with the rest of the country, adding it will facilitate the industrial triangle of Gujranwala-Wazirabad-Sialkot which is also a densely population region.
He was appreciative of the idea of involving the private sector in the motorway project, saying this will help the government divert resources to other areas. He was confident that more private capital will flow into the road infrastructure projects in future.
Khan said that the Swat Motorway has opened the whole area for tourism. He said Pakistan has immense potential for tourism but it was not developed in the past. He said that projects such as second phase of Swat motorway and Dir motorway will help encourage both domestic and foreign tourism at the picturesque places.
He said the country can generate huge revenue through prudent policies like promotion of tourism, considering the country’s huge potential. He said so far the country was looking at the domestic tourism but once the road between Swat and Gilgit is constructed, it will attract foreign tourists too thus bringing foreign exchange. He added the tourism could help fill the dollar gap until country’s exports reach to the desired level.
Earlier, Minister for Communications Murad Saeed gave a detailed overview of the road infrastructure projects executed over the last three years. He said, “We have built 1,753 kilometres of roads as compared to 645 kilometres of roads constructed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in three years.”
He said, “We plan to start 19 more road infrastructure projects including Kharian-Rawalpindi motorway and Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway during the current fiscal year.” He said that bids have been received for the construction of the second phase of Swat motorway. Work on Dir motorway will also be started this year, he added.
The minister for communications said that National Highway Authority is also focusing on the maintenance and repair of existing road infrastructure. As regards the revenue of the NHA, he said this has been increased by Rs87 billion rupees. He said, “We have also recovered land worth Rs5 billion.”
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, SAPM Usman Dar and Chairman of National Highway Authority Captain (R) Khurram Agha attended the event.
The Rs32 billion Sialkot-Kharian Motorway would create around 4,275 jobs and cater to around 23,000 vehicles per day. The initial four-lane motorway would consist of five interchanges at Jalalpur Jattan, Pero Shah, Daulat Nagar, Galyana and Kharian.
