Provincial Minister for Agriculture Dr. Farrukh Javed has said that new roads of thousands of kilometer are being built under Khadim-e-Punjab Rural Roads Program. It’s going to be a silent revolution in rural areas of Punjab. 255 new roads on more than two thousand kilometers will be built in first phase. He said that this project is the biggest project in the history of Pakistan for the construction and rehabilitation of rural roads. The project is being implemented speedily and a huge amount of 150 billion rupees will be spent on this project during next three years, he added. He said that trees will be planted on both sides of roads as per the availability of land and roads research labs will be built in different regions.
The minister was presiding over the meeting of cabinet committee to review the progress of Khadim-e-Punjab Rural Roads Program. Chairman P&D Irfan Elahi, Secretary C&W Mian Mushtaq, Dr. Bodla, representatives of Finance department, Nespak and concerned authorities also attended the meeting.
Dr. Farrukh Javed said that all the districts of Punjab are included in the program and merit will be the only policy in implementing the project. He said that such mega projects are of vital importance for progress of rural areas and will prove to be game changer for rural economy. He said that farmers and the people of villages will directly benefit from this project which will also provide job opportunities to thousands of people. He said that this project will result in better facilities to the farmers, cultivators and people of rural areas of the province. Due to high standard of rural areas, fuel and time will be saved and comfortable journey will be available to the people of the area while the profit of farmers and villagers will increase through easy access of their markets. The Minister said that construction and rehabilitation of all rural roads of Punjab will be completed by 2018. Earlier Secretary C&W briefed the minister regarding progress of the program and asked for further directions to implement the program at a fast pace. Minister Agriculture notified a technical sub committee to review several areas of the project. The sub-committee will present its recommendations in ten days time.