its service-quality. In the first phase, a total of 100 air-conditioned buses will be run at 11 different routes in Multan, and an e-ticketing system has been introduced
for travelling. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the Chief Minister congratulated the people of Multan on the launch of speedo bus service and said that 100 speedo buses had been provided for the service, said a handout issued here. The people will travel in an honorable way on metro and speedo buses with a paltry sum of Rs 25 and the facility for physically challenged passengers had also been provided in
these buses. After Lahore, the city of Multan has been blessed with state-of-the-art public transport system, he added. He said the journey of development and prosperity initiated by the PML-N government in the Southern Punjab had been unprecedented. The people used to talk about the backwardness of Southern Punjab, but was there any government in the history of the country that adopted practical steps for the development of this area. The credit goes to the PML-N’s government that had spent resources worth billions of rupees for the development and prosperity of Southern Punjab.
As much as Rs 85 billion have been spent on the construction and rehabilitation of farm-to-market rural roads programme.Similarly, thousands of kilometers long rural roads had been constructed and repaired, and the initiative had brought new
revolution in the rural economy. Under the leadership of PML-N Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif solid steps have been taken including subsidy of billions of rupees on fertilizers.
In addition to it, the Punjab government has started a programme of providing interest-free loans to the small farmers with an amount of Rs 100 billion. These loans have been provided to more than two lakh small farmers, till date. He said that a mega programme of providing clean drinking water was being started from Southern Punjab and the contracts would be awarded at the end of this year. Despite different obstacles, the clean drinking water programme was being started from 55 tehsils and a sum of Rs 24 billion had been allocated for this project, this year.
He said that Information Technology University project would be completed in Rahim Yar Khan this year and on the other hand, work on Khanewal-Lodhran dual carriageway was in progress speedily with a cost of Rs 23 billion. Meanwhile, the construction of Dera Ghazi Khan-Muzaffargarh Road was also being started soon
and Rs 14 billion will be spent on this project, he added.
The CM said that it was not a jugglery of words or any fiction story and people could see everything with their own eyes. I do not request any media-praise but it should definitely project the different steps taken for the development of Southern Punjab to enhance public awareness, he said.
He said that hepatitis was spreading rapidly everywhere.
The Punjab government has started a revolutionary programme to eradicate the disease and hepatitis filter clinics, equipped with latest medical facilities, were being set up in all the districts of the province, he announced and said that immediate establishment of hepatitis filter clinics in Shujaabad and Multan which would be completed in next four months.
He said that Multan was a historic and densely populated
city and the motorbikes ambulance service, which has been started in Lahore, would also be introduced in Multan in next few weeks to provide first-aid to the people of congested localities and other areas in case of any emergency.
This service will be extended to all nine divisions, as well,
he said and added that a double road had been completed at a cost of Rs 5 billion in Bahawalpur.
He said that unique investment made by the PML-N government for the development of Southern Punjab has no resemblance in the history of the country. We haven’t rendered any benefaction to Southern Punjab by providing resources worth billions of rupees, but it is a responsibility which will be fulfilled in future, as well.
He announced to start the safari park project in Multan
immediately and directed the MD Metro Bus Authority to ruminate the possibility of starting feeder bus service from Nag Shah to Multan route. He said that a committee has been constituted to mull over the problems being faced by the citizens with regard to introduction of e-card in speedo bus service in Lahore and disclosed that he would make an announcement soon, in a day or two, to benefit the masses.
He said that a committee has been working to resolve the
problem of “one passenger, one card” in feeder and metro buses so that a family could travel against one card. He said that speedo bus will be run soon in Lodhran in next phase. He said that the educational activities are in full swing in the new university in Multan. Keeping in view the tremendous rush of patients in Nishtar Hospital, it has been decided to construct second Nishtar Hospital in Multan and work on this project will be started this year.
Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated the people over the start of speedo bus service in Multan and said that the historic project of metro bus which was inaugurated by the PML-N Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has become the most conspicuous benchmark of the Southern Punjab. Full attention is being paid to bring Southern Punjab at par with the central Punjab and the metro bus project has been started in Multan after Lahore-Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro bus service.
He pointed out that such a gigantic project has not been established in Karachi or in Peshawar or anywhere else in the country. He said that when the metro bus project was completed in Lahore in 2013, the PTI started feeling unnerved that why a wonderful bus has been made available to the common people in Lahore.
A handful of the filthy-rich including debtors and bank defaulters in which names of some of the people from Southern Punjab are also included, were intensely opposing metro bus project. The PTI chairman and his cronies termed this public project as “Jangla Bus” and baselessly propagated that Rs 70 billion have been spent without giving any proof, till today. “I have always said that no more than Rs 30 billion
has been spent on the metro bus project. On the other side, Niazi Sahib resorted to sit-in in 2014 to hinder the national
development process and wasted seven precious months of the nation by destabilizing the system and incurring great damage to the national economy”.
The Chinese President was scheduled to visit Pakistan to sign the CPEC agreements in September 2014, but due to the stubbornness and obduracy of the PTI, this tour was delayed. Due to the obstinacy of the PTI Chairman, the seven months
period of national development was wasted. Had the Chinese President visited Pakistan in 2014, then many a projects would have been bearing fruit now.
Niazi Sahib has no regard to public welfare and only personal interest is dear to him. That is why, he opposed national development, he added. If Niazi Sahib had not wasted the precious time with his sit-in, the 1320-MW Sahiwal Coal Power Plant, which has been completed in June 2017, would have been completed in June 2016, and that would have provided great benefit to the country.
This group also opposed Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project and then announced to start metro project in Peshawar in 2014. After passing more than four years, they
could not have laid even a single brick of this project in Peshawar. He said PTI obstructed this mega project through courts and due to them; work has been stopped at 11 different points of the orange line metro train. If they were wise enough, then as they have got stay order to obstruct the orange line metro train project in
Lahore, this way, they could have given application for stay order to obstruct the metro bus projects in Multan and Rawalpindi-Islamabad. The elements that could not done anything in Peshawar are creating hurdles in the public welfare projects of Punjab. “I ask the people of Peshawar that if there were any PML-N government in the KPK, then the metro bus project would have been completed in Peshawar in mere 11 months”. He said that public development of the Southern Punjab is dear to him and different steps would be continuously adopted for the development of the region.
Earlier, MD Punjab Mass Transit Authority Sibtain Fazl-e-Haleem told the Chief Minister that 100 AC buses are being run at 11 different routes in Multan city in the first phase, and a total of 258 stops have been earmarked. He said that feeder bus routes have been linked with 21 metro bus stations and metro bus card is acceptable for feeder buses, as well. Metro bus card is of Rs 200 value in which there is
a balance of Rs 70 and rest of Rs 130 amount is returnable. Metro bus card is available at 21 metro bus stations and 12 sale points while card recharge facility is also provided. As many as 22,000 metro bus cards have been sold out till
today, and same fare is being charged at metro buses in Lahore and in Multan. He further said that it is best transport system which is available in developed countries, adding that 257 cameras will be installed for bus surveillance. Federal Ministers Malik Sikandar Hayat Bosan, Syed Javed Ali Shah, Provincial Ministers Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman, Naghma Mushtaq Long, Mayor of Multan Naveed ul Haq, Chairman District Council Dewan Abbas Bukhari, MNAs and MPAs, and a large number of people, attended the meeting.
