Daily Times

LAHORE: The governing body of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has approved annual budget for LDA and its subordinate agencies, including Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) and Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (TEPA), for the fiscal year 2016-17 on Thursday.

Total resources of LDA, WASA and TEPA have been estimated at Rs 93.48 billion out of which Rs 80 billion have been earmarked for development works in the provincial capital as well as the districts of Sheikupura, Nankan Sahib and Kasur.

Advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister and LDA Governing Body member Khawaja Ahmad Hassan chaired the budget meeting, which was attended by members of provincial assembly including Bao Muhammad Akhtar, Rana Muhammad Arshad, LDA Director General Nabeel Javed, WASA Managing Director Naseer Ahmad, TEPA Chief Engineer Saifur Rehman, Chief Metropolitan Planner Waheed Ahmad Butt, LDA Finance Director Zaheer Asghar Rana, representatives of the provincial local government, housing, planning and development, and finance departments.

As per the budget document, total resources of LDA’s Under Development Wing during the fiscal year 2016-17 have been estimated at Rs 71.86 billion. This amount would also include development expenditure of Rs 68 billion, while development expenditure included Rs 10.87 billion through LDA’s own sources, Rs 56.10 billion to be provided by the government for executing various development projects under Annual Development Programme and deposit works, notably Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project, and Rs 1.17 billion for carrying out development schemes exclusively in Sheikupura, Nankana Sahib and Kasur.

An amount of Rs 5.82 billion has been allocated through LDA’s own sources for carrying out development works in LDA housing schemes. This include Rs 1.52 billion for LDA Avenue-I, Rs 350 million for construction of road network, water supply and sewerage in its finance and trade centre, Rs 350 million for LDA City and Rs 3.5 billion as lump-sum provision for development projects in different LDA housing schemes. These projects would include construction of underpass at railway crossing near Gurumangat Road, Gulberg, remodeling of junctions and U-turns at Moulana Shoukat Ali Road, Khayaban-e- Firdousi and Khyban-e- Jinnah and other development schemes.

Construction of LDA office buildings at Johar Town and Sheikupura and official residences for officers and employees of LDA would cost Rs 449 million. An amount of Rs 305 million would be spent on development and implementation of integrated computerised systems for LDA. A sum of Rs 200 million has been allocated for preparation of integrated strategic development plan for Lahore, while construction of pedestrian bridge in front of Girls College Gujjarpura would cost Rs 30 million.

A total of Rs 3.63 billion have been allocated for kicking off new projects in the provincial metropolis including Rs 2.28 billion for carrying out four new development projects under public-private partnership. These projects include construction of Defence Road Flyover, Sharaqpur Byepass, Southern Bye-pass and Kalashah Kaku Expressway. Other projects to be executed include construction of missing links of roads at a cost Rs 300 million, construction of pedestrian bridges at a cost of Rs 150 million and execution of priority works at a cost of Rs 500 million.

LDA would also execute different projects under the ADP of the Punjab government and other deposit works amounting to a total expenditure of Rs 56.10 billion..