Our Lahore-Sialkot Motorway project would have been completed by 2010, they will construct it now at double cost minus Gujrat: Ch Parvez Elahi

Due to stoppage of our project two international technical universities which were to be constructed on went to India, industrial zones also could not be established, talk with media

Lahore: 23-08-2016: Pakistan Muslim League (PML) senior central leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Ch Parvez Elahi has said that project for construction of six-lanes Lahore-Sialkot motorway was planned by his govt in 2006 and it would have been completed in 2010 at a cost of Rs 23 billion but Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif stopped our project, now they have announced to complete it at double cost of Rs 43.85 billion as compared to us and that too minus Gujrat.

Talking to media people in Gujrat, Ch Parvez Elahi said that the present rulers first stop projects of our tenure and then after making some changes here and there re-start these at much higher cost only to put up plaques of their names, work on construction of Lahore-Sialkot project was started in 2007 after formal inauguration, this motorway was to start from Sambrial on Sialkot- Wazirabad Road and go straight to Lahore and it would have been connected with Gujrat through construction of bridge on river Chenab near Shehbazpur, the project also included establishment of three industrial zones with cooperation of China and setting up of two international technical universities with the help of Sweden and Austria, but due to stopping of our project on the excuse of non-availability of funds both these universities went to India whereas 60 thousand people were denied opportunity of new employment, National Highway Authority (NHA) had named it as M-2 whereas it was also called the Industrial Highway besides Lahore-Sialkot Motorway, the project also included construction of 8 flyovers, 40 bridges and 70 underpasses and this would have included Sheikhupura, Daska, Narowal, Pasrur, Zafarwal, Chowinda and Wazirabad also directly in the national motorway grid besides Sialkot and Gujrat, seven interchanges were to be made on it, completion of this motorway would have reduced travelling distance between Sialkot and Lahore only to 45 minutes but owing to their enmity towards Gujrat the present rulers denied this facility to people of Sialkot, Sheikhupura, Narowal and Gujranwala districts for seven years and also caused big loss to provincial and national economy besides the area.

During talk with the media, Ch Parvez Elahi also showed clippings of newspapers of April 2007 in which Sialkot-Lahore Motorway inauguration news were also published. #