Government is spending a lot on food security:Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor

Lahore: Minister for Planning & Development Punjab Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor Khan has said that the 350,000 metric ton storage capacity would be constructed by the private party while the government shall pay storage-fee for the facility. In order to ensure food security in the Punjab Province and to provide healthy wheat to the consumers by developing scientific and modernized storage facilities, the proposal of the Provincial Food department to construct modern silos through Public Private Partnership has been approved in the steering committee meeting.

He said this while presiding over the seventh meeting of Public Private Partnership Steering Committee held on Wednesday in Planning & Development Department Lahore. The Chairman Planning & Development Board Javaid Aslam, Provincial Secretaries of Planning & Development, Finance and other relevant departments also attended the meeting.

Minister P&D directed the relevant departments to complete these valuable projects within given time frame so that the public may be able to benefit from them. During the steering committee meeting, two mega projects of road and transport sectors were presented for approval including “Vehicle Inspection & Certification System” in Punjab to ensure road safety and enhance the life of vehicles and the project of “Southern Loop of Lahore Ring Road”. The Steering Committee allowed Provincial Transport department to advertise the project of Vehicle Inspection & Certification System to seek proposals from private parties whereas for the project of Southern Loop of Lahore Ring Road, the Transport Department was advised to prepare a comprehensive project structure before advertising it in the newspapers.

The senior representative of City District Government Lahore, during the presentation before the steering committee, told that the CDGL intends to convert the conversional street lights into LEDs to save energy and public money. For that purpose CDGL has received a proposal from a private party M/s K&N International. The steering committee allowed CDGL to hire a Transaction Advisor out of PDF fund, created by Punjab Government to develop public-private partnership projects, so that a comprehensive project structure may be developed before seeking proposals from private parties.