Work on western route of CPEC accelerated, says minister

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed said on Thursday work on western route of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had been accelerated, which would play a role of the catalyst in development of the less-developed areas.

He further said 2,000 vacancies in the National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) had been filled through fresh recruitments, whereas, the process had been started to make more recruitments to overcome staff shortage.

Addressing a function for performance appraisal of the National Highways and Motorway Police, the minister said needs of the Motorway Police would be included in the PC-1 of each project in the future.

He said with the expansion of the motorways network in the country, the need for the NHMP personnel had increased but in the past it was not allowed to recruit more staff as per its requirements. He said five mega road infrastructure projects would be executed this year under public private partnership without burdening the national exchequer.

The minister said the Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway would be completed under public-private partnership. He said since its inception, the National Highways and Motorways Police had inculcated high moral and institutional values that were exemplary for other institutions.

Murad said Motorway Police was striving hard for the safe travel of the people and serving them in an exemplary manner. He said a welfare state based on justice and compassion was the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, and that was why, he had pledged to provide shelter to the homeless people through Panaghahs after coming to power.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020