Daily Times

LAHORE: A team of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will visit intermediate cities to revise the draft aide memoire, administration manual and preparation or related documents under the Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement Investment Programme (PICIIP). This was revealed that during a meeting of the fact finding mission of the ADB delegation during its visit to The Urban Unit to discuss participatory technical assessment studies (PPTA) and draft loan agreement under the said project, on Monday. The meeting was chaired by The Urban Unit Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Nasir Javed while the ADB mission was headed by Principal Urban Development Specialist Kiyoshi Nakamitsu. The Urban Unit legal adviser Rafay Alam was also present. Both the parties decided to meet deadlines from drafting to execution of plans in close coordination. While plans on procurement, gender, communication, risk management, water and sanitation, social safeguard, financial analysis and project administration were discussed with an aim to reach some tangible points before putting the documents for further approval and execution. Experts from the ADB had group meetings with several specialists to discuss the recommended plan for five intermediate cities namely Sialkot, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan. The project is aimed at improving the quality of living in the 13 intermediate cities of Punjab through four tranches with total investment of $500m via. In the first phase, two cities, Sialkot and Sahiwal, have been selected under the programme. Later, the delegation called on secretaries of Local Government and Community Development and Planning and Development Department to discuss funds flow mechanism and other relevant legalities of the project.