Daily Times

LAHORE: The Asian Development Bank team will visit the intermediate cities under Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement Investment Programme (PICIIP) to meet the town municipal administrations.

This was revealed during a meeting between Asian Development Bank (ADB) delegation and Urban Unit to discuss the project participatory technical assessment studies and draft loan agreement for the PICIIP on Monday.

The meeting was chaired by Urban Unit CEO Dr Nasir Javed, while the ADB mission was headed by Principal Urban Development Specialist Kiyoshi Nakamitsu. Rafay Alam, legal advisor and member BoD Urban Unit, also attended the meeting.

Both the parties had consensus on completing the project on time and on executing the plans in close partnership and coordination. While, plans on procurement, gender, communication, risk management, water and sanitation, social safeguard, financial analysis, project administration manual and infrastructure were discussed with an aim to reach some tangible points before putting the documents for further approval and execution.

ADB experts had group meetings with various sector specialists for ensuring that the recommended plans about five intermediate cities namely Sialkot, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Bhawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan are discussed in detail so as to benefit the communities living in these cities. The PICIIP aims to improve the quality of living in the 13 intermediate cities of Punjab through four tranches with total investment of $500 million via Multi Tranche Financing Facility of ADB. In the first phase, two cities are selected under this program including Sialkot and Sahiwal.

Meanwhile, the delegation later called on secretary local government and community development and secretary planning and development department to discuss the funds flow mechanism and other relevant legalities of the project.