From the Sindh government, the meeting was attended by Provincial Finance Minister Murad Ali Shah, Senior Member Board of Revenue, Shavaiz Shamon and other senior officials concerned. According to reports, the proposed economic zone would not be confined to industrial and economic activities but cover the entire range of activities in a modern metropolis. According to the proposal, the development program would be spread over 15 years split into three five-year programs. Initially the industrialists and investors from China would be brought in to initiate the developmental activities which would subsequently be followed by investors from other countries. Farhatullah Babar said that a significant feature is that the Chinese would invest and reinvest for 15 years before taking out profits. The President directed that the Chinese proposal for the economic zone should be thoroughly studied and recommendations be forwarded to the government at the earliest.
He said that the whole idea of setting up a new city was to meet the challenges of the future and to develop safe, modern and an environment friendly coastal city having world class amenities with economic opportunities not only for the habitants of the city but also for the people of neighboring areas. He reiterated his call to the developers that the city be developed in accordance with the most modern and latest concepts of city planning. The President said that the study of recent concepts of town planning would be helpful in designing the city and to equip it with state-of-the-art facilities. Putra Jaya of Malaysia and Islamabad model could also be replicated to ensure harmony and symmetry, he said. Managing Director Zulfikarabad Developmenrity (ZDA), Lt Gen (R) Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah while briefing the meeting about the overall progress on the city projects informed that the development of the new city includes construction of Zulfikarabad Expressway and a bridge over Indus at Dhandhari.
He said that to accelerate the work on the proposed city, ZDA was in an advanced stage of hiring a consultant for conceptual Master Planning of the city. It may be recalled that during the previous meeting on the subject in June this year at the Presidency, the President was informed that the process of opening bid documents for short-listing the firms for the issuance of Request for Proposal (RFP) has already been completed. It was told that the process of submitting Conceptual Master Plan supported by its feasibility study would be completed by December 12, 2011. Managing Director ZDA also informed that work has been started on the establishment of site camp office at Baghan Taluka Keti Bander on the available land. He said that initially a camp office would be set up in Porta cabin and would go in permanency with the scope of work. Deputy Director General Frontier Works Organization (FWO), Brig Jehangir Akhter briefed the meeting about status of developmental work being undertaken by FWO.
He informed that the FWO team has completed elaborate reconnaissance and survey for construction of Expressway and bridge over Indus at Dhandhari. Plan of Action and the cost estimates have been presented to ZDA, he informed. The President directed that the pace of work be accelerated and efforts be geared up to attract more foreign investments in the developmental projects of the proposed city.
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