LAHORE: The “New Lahore” project launched by the PTI government aims to realize the dreams of all Pakistanis, the special aide to Punjab’s prime minister, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, said Friday, adding that it would represent the aspirations of city dwellers and Pakistanis overseas.
Calling it a “masterpiece,” Dr. Firdous Awan noted that although the ‘New Lahore’ project was planned and announced seven years ago, “the previous government, in its ambitious goals and gasconade, focused on programs that offered high kickbacks”.
The flow, pollution, and damage to the beauty of the Ravi River itself has become a nightmare for Lahore,” the assistant prime minister said.
Punjab Prime Minister Usman Buzdar and the provincial government have taken the first step to make Lahore a beautiful city, with “modern, modern, and technologically-oriented ideas”, he said.
“The ‘New Lahore’ program aims to realize the dreams of all Pakistanis – especially Lahore residents,” he added.
Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan noted that the ‘New Lahore’ project attracted “safe investment of Rs28 billion, will provide jobs for 1.2 million people, and 1.8 housing units have been established”.
The ‘New Lahore’ project would have 13 centers – including sports, information, health and commercial businesses – and other programs. More than six million plants will be planted to control pollution and “a 46-kilometer lake is the main cause of the program”, he explained.
“The ‘New Lahore’ program is a work of art,” said Birdous Ashiq Awan, a special aide to the prime minister of Punjab, during a press conference in Lahore, Pakistan, on November 20, 2020.
The lake “will not only improve our environment but also maintain groundwater supply and, ultimately, the people of Lahore – the current water-borne disease center – will also remove that”.
“The region will be the latest technology and tourism destination, which will begin the economic downturn, and attract investment to Pakistani overseas.
“It will bring prosperity and development and [unlike the plans] of those who remain busy building their palaces at Jati Umrah, this will be a real work of art to be used through the Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) program.
“We will also include our friends in the media as well. I suggested that [the ‘New Lahore’ program] should include the city of broadcasting so that our future youth living in the media can benefit me,” he said.
Dr. Awan regretted that Lahore was no longer the city that older generations had praised for its beauty, culture and tourism.
“Modern Lahore has failed to follow the traditions of the elderly because the challenges here include car pollution, fog, dangerous population growth, a lack of planning in the housing and road network, and a lack of a comprehensive framework everywhere [in Lahore] to be heard.”
CM Assistant clarified that some people had been misled by the ‘New Lahore’ project because “residents were not well served by the benefits of this project or the proper way to let them know it was vague, opening the way for misunderstandings”.
He criticized the media for “showing protests” and “the other side of the picture”, saying the government now wished to show the other side of the picture, the facts, and the challenges and opportunities “in this project”.