RAWALPINDI: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated on Sunday a multibillion-rupee mass transit project for the twin cities and said that it would be replicated in Multan in the next phase. The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Service project will be completed at a cost of Rs44.21 billion within 10 months.
After unveiling the plaque, the premier addressed a gathering at Rawalpindi where extraordinary security was in place for the occasion. He promised the Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, additional funds after the latter complained that the 50/50 cost-sharing formula for the project was not in favour of his province.
“The nation will see positive developments with each passing day,” he said, pointing to an array of projects that his government has planned over the next four years, including Karachi motorway, Islamabad-Muzaffarabad train service and new Islamabad airport.
He said the government was also working on a plan to end power outages and 22,000 megawatts of electricity would be added to the national grid over the next four years.
The prime minister recalled that Pakistan witnessed brief stints of development when his party, the PML-N, was voted to power twice in the 1990s. In this context, he specifically referred to the country’s nuclear programme and
the network of world-class motorways.
Subsequent military regimes and even political governments did nothing for the people and instead plunged the country into crises. “The nations that were 30 years behind us back then are 30 years ahead of us [in terms of development] today,” he regretted. “The previous regimes deliberately kept the nation backward in order to prolong their rules.”
He said peace was a prerequisite for development. With this in mind, the government launched a peace initiative which, the premier said, was going ahead at a ‘satisfactory pace’. A face-to-face meeting between the government negotiating team and Taliban Political Shura members will be held in a ‘day or two’, he added.
“Terrorism, corruption, unemployment, indiscipline and poverty are rampant today,” Nawaz said but hoped that peace would be restored and the country would get rid of the scourge of terrorism and extremism.
Coming to another important topic, economy, the premier said the country’s economic indicators were positive. “I’ve directed Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to ensure the US dollar stays below 100 but not lower than Rs98 so that both importers and exporters could benefit,” he added.
In his address on the occasion, the Punjab chief minister said Rawalpindi and Islamabad would become twin cities in real sense after the completion of the metro bus project. He also complained that the cost-sharing formula was not in favour of his province and sought more funds from the prime minister.
“Affected traders will be compensated for their property according to the market value and for the disturbance of their businesses,” he said. At the same time, he came down hard on the critics of the metro bus. “Those who are criticising the project do not bother if students reach their schools late, or a patient dies in ambulance on way to hospital,” he said. “They [critics] are just playing politics.”
A documentary shown on the occasion pointed out there will be no environmental impact of the project as no green area will be affected during the construction of the project and it will not violate the master plan of Islamabad.
It also showed the route of the metro bus that will start from Flashman’s Hotel Chowk on Murree Road and end at Pakistan Secretariat covering a distance of 23.2 kilometres. From Faizabad, Rawalpindi, the bus will run on IJP Road, 9th Avenue and Jinnah Avenue, Blue Area and culminate near the Pakistan Secretariat.
The track will have 24 modern terminals for passengers. Of these, 10 will be on Murree Road while 14 in Islamabad. Initially, 60 buses will ply from Rawalpindi to Islamabad catering to over 150,000 passengers.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2014.
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