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KARACHI, June 17: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that the existing $800million ADB-funded mega city project will be redesigned and improved with the inclusion of mass transit schemes such as a light rail, costing Rs2.4 billion, to provide a solution to traffic congestion in the city for the next few decades.
This was one of the salient features of the budget 2008-09, said the chief minister while addressing the post-budget press conference on the seventh floor of the New Sindh Secretariat on Tuesday.
Accompanied by Information Minister Shazia Marri and Chief Secretary Fazal-ur-Rehman, he said the government had accorded high priority to Karachi as far as the infrastructure and strengthening of institutions was concerned. The city was a major economic growth engine not only for Sindh but also for the whole country, he observed.
He recalled that the first special development package of Rs121 billion for Karachi was presented by the Bhutto government in 1996 and said that the scant resources available at present were kept in view while preparing the budget to implement the philosophy of Benazir Bhutto and accomplish her mission.
Yet in addition to the mass transit programme, a package of Rs2 billion was prepared for various priority schemes for Karachi, he said, adding that this included Rs200-million allocation made for the Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project.
Mr Shah said the government accorded high priority to measures against environmental degradation in Karachi as well as the sea. He said urgent actions would be taken by undertaking quick investments on the Greater Karachi Sewerage plan (S-III). For this, he said, the government would provide one billion rupees and request the federal government for a matching allocation.
He said the government with the support of the Asian Development Bank was going to embark upon a Sindh Cities Development Programme. Since urban centres beyond Karachi in the past remained ignored, development of all major cities was kept in view in the budget with top priority accorded to the development of Larkana — the city of the late Benazir Bhutto. The federal government had allocated Rs5 billion and the Sindh government had presented a Rs2billion development package for the uplift works in Larkana.
Rs21bn for police
He said that in order to improve law and order in the metropolis and other parts of Sindh police budget was being enhanced from Rs17.02 billion to Rs21.3 billion which was an increase of 28 per cent. This includes 3,500 additional posts, funds for vehicles, arms and ammunition and Rs1 billion for surveillance cameras.
Besides, he pointed out that the agro export processing zone in Karachi would soon be made operational.
In reply to a question, he said the deficit of Rs14 billion would be met by improving the province’s own revenue collection, mobilising additional revenues, and undertaking an austerity drive through a range of measures including a ban on all luxury items, maintaining ceilings, discouraging unnecessary foreign visits and taking up pending issues, like straight transfers and GST on services, with the federal government.
In response to a few questions, the information minister said priority given to the schemes in the budget was a manifestation of its being poor-friendly budget. She said the government had no magic wand to resolve numerous pressing issues, which were outcome of neglect and wrong policies. However, the democratic government had tried to embark on poverty reduction, address unemployment, bring structural improvement and change mindsets.
“We have political will and as such we will continue to monitor the implementation of development schemes to ensure that the budget yields desired results,” she remarked.
About problems being faced by journalists, the minister pledged that the lease issue of the Karachi Press Club would be resolved soon, while obstacles in the development of Hawkesbay land for the journalists’ housing society would also be resolved this year.
