National consensus needed for new province in south Punjab: PM Abbasi

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi inaugurated on Saturday the Multan-Shujabad section of Sukkur-Multan Motorway (M-5).

Addressing the ceremony, the prime minister said that the incumbent government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) delivered than what was promised during its tenure.

Talking about the new province in south Punjab, he said that a national consesnus is needed on the issue.

Slamming previous governments, Abbasi asked if they did not have resources to initiate development projects. He added that the past governments only verbally inaugurated projects.

"Former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf ruled the country for a decade and Asif Ali Zardari for five years, but they are all talk when it comes to doing something for the development of people," he said.

He added that Musharraf and Zardari did not set up any power plant during their tenures to mitigate the electricity shortage, but the PML-N government opened various projects in five years to end loadshedding in the country. "We generated an additional 10,400MW of electricity".

He went on to say that the running government has used the same resources for development in the country. "We continued working without taking care of any umpire's finger," he said.

Talking about the upcoming general election, Abbasi said that public will make decision about it in July. He added that decision for public was not a difficult task as on one side there is a party which serves people and on the other hand is a party which uses abusive language.

 

Speedy Communication

The opening of the motorway section will facilitate speedy travel between Multan and Shujabad, said a press release issued here earlier.

The Sukkur-Multan Motorway is part of Karachi-Lahore Motorway Project and is being constructed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It is 394km long and will cost around Rs294 billion.

Work on the Motorway was started in 2016 and is scheduled to complete by 2019. It is a 6-lane access controlled facility, taking off from Sukkur and terminating at Multan, after passing through several major cities including Ghotki, Rahim Yar Khan, Sadiqabad and Bahawalpur.

The alignment traverses through the provinces of Sindh and Punjab. The project includes construction of several bridges, interchanges, culverts, underpasses and other allied structures as well as service areas.

Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Bridge

The prime minister will also inaugurate the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto bridge over River Ravi which provides an important communication link across the Indus River between the cities of Zahirpur on G.T. Road (N-5) and Indus Highway (N-55) via Mithankot.

There is no river crossing on Indus up to Ghazighat, which is approximately 50km downstream of Taunsa Barrage. Dera Ghazi Khan is located approximately 120 km upstream of this bridge.

The bridge will greatly facilitate the traffic from Karachi, Kashmore etc on the Western side and Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, Multan, Faisalabad and Lahore on the Eastern side, being a short route from Karachi to Lahore.

The bridge is 1.2km long with 12.2m width. Approach roads including 14km towards Zahirpur on N-5 and 16km towards Mithankot and N-55 have also been constructed.