President General Pervez Musharraf will visit Faisalabad next week to announce an uplift package for the industrial city, said City District Nazim Rana Zahid Tauseef while addressing a news conference here on Monday.
He said that a comprehensive master plan was being prepared with the help of national and international experts to make Faisalabad a modern and planned metropolis of this region.
He said that all industrial units in urban residential areas would be shifted outside the city to make it a pollution-free area.
"Plans are at the anvil to ensure electricity, Sui gas, water, education, health, communication and other basic amenities in the district," he said, added two new general hospitals had been planned in addition to the up gradation of existing hospitals.
He said that four major universities would also be established along with five colleges in the city.
City District Nazim Rana urged upon policy makers that the industrial city's health, sanitation and poor road infrastructure need a major overhaul.
He also stressed equal development of the district's urban as well as rural areas.
The nazim said the underground water in almost entire district had become brackish due to industrial effluents and the sewerage lines laid down decades ago had also become defective in the heavily populated areas of the city resulting in unhygienic conditions.
He claimed the number of hepatitis patients and of those suffering from other serious diseases was escalating due to chemical pollutants in the city's atmosphere.
The road infrastructure had also become dilapidated and was insufficient for a rising number of vehicles in the district, mainly because of the reckless urbanisation during the last three decades, he added.
He deplored the situation of healthcare centers and educational institutions and said they needed funds as many serious patients suffering from ailments of heart, liver, and cancer are being shifted to Lahore for treatment.
Tauseef said the district required at least over Rs 20 billion for provision of basic facilities to the people.
He said during his recent meeting with General Pervez Musharraf, he apprised the president of the problems being confronted by the citizens. The president, he said, had pledged a huge grant for the district's uplift.
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