News
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Punjab govt’s effort to get credit for LRMTS bootless: ElahiStaff Report
LAHORE: Senior Federal Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has said that he had started work on Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System (LRMTS) during his tenure in 2004. According to him, the Punjab government’s move of renaming and asserting its claim over the mega project would fall flat as the public was well aware that it was conceived, planned, financed and initiated during his tenure.
Parvaiz Elahi expressed these views at a press conference on Tuesday. Briefing the journalists on Lahore Rapid Mass Transit System (LRMTS), he said that after inviting international tenders in 2004 from suitable consultants, his government shortlisted a Hong Kong based company. He said that Systra, a French company, completed the reference design of LRMTS in 2007, which included engineering, planning, financial evaluation and other project details.
He informed journalists that as per international standards a mega construction project was considered 30 percent complete once its reference design was ready.
Explaining the financial aspect of the Urban Rail Road Project, Pervaiz Elahi said that according to the 2006 price index, the cost for the 27km green line, which was to begin from Ferozpur Road, Lahore, and culminate at Shahdara, was put at $ 2.4 billion. He said that the Asian Development Bank to extend a loan of $ 1 billion at only 1.5pc markup due to the viability of this project and the prevalent friendly investment climate in Punjab agreed, while for rolling stock, various large investment groups showed keen interest. He said that the Shahbaz government, soon after coming into power in Punjab, immediately went about scrapping projects of the earlier government on obviously vindictive grounds.
LRMTS also became a target and the present Punjab government conveyed to the Asian Development Bank that the $ 1 billion loan was not required as the investment climate in the province was not congenial, he said. Pervaiz Elahi called Shahbaz Sharif the first ever CM who not only denied a much-required loan but also informed the investors at large to stay away from investing in Punjab.
He called it the biggest treachery in the country’s history. He said that the timely completion of the LRMTS project had the potential of generating $ 100 million per annum apart from creating over one million new job opportunities.
Criticising the recently signed railroad project in Lahore with a foreign company, Pervaiz Elahi said that there were irregularities in the so-called MoU. He alleged that there was no project feasibility and the financial details including the markup rate on a massive $ 1.87 billion loan had also not been made public.
He said that the Shahbaz government’s abject failure to manage Punjab was evident by the fact that it was left with no choice but to revive the earlier government’s projects, namely the IT Tower Lahore and LRMTS. He proposed that the Punjab government to rename Lahore-Sialkot Motorway project as Nawaz-Shahbaz Motorway if it would help its revival. Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi called the present Punjab government incompetent and devoid of any vision.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk