KARACHI: Governor of Sindh, Imran Ismail Saturday said that the federal government has initiated various projects in Karachi like Green Line Bus (GLB) to facilities the citizens, adding construction work on Green Line’s Phase-II track would be completed by next six months.

He was addressing the restoration ceremony of Cooperative Market Saddar here, where a large number of PTI workers and business communities were present.

On November 14, 2021 a fire broke out in the Saddar’s Cooperative Market that completely destroyed some 500 shops. The market was reopened after more than two months.

The government has provided 50 fire tenders, two water bowsers to Karachi and these fire tenders were the gift from Prime Minister Imran Khan to the citizens and they were equipped with latest technology which could work more efficiently and effectively to extinguish fires, the governor added.

Appreciating the PTI workers for contribution to restoration of the market, he told that PTI MNA Aftab Siddiqi with party MPA Khurram Sher Zaman and others took up the restoration work of the market that took nearly two months to complete.

Suggesting the traders, Imran Ismail reiterated: “I know you need money to run the businesses and ‘Kamyab Jawan Programme’ is a better option for you to get loans at very low mark-up”.

He further asked them to apply for the loans and if they face any difficulty in getting these loans, the PTI representatives would extend all kinds of support to them.

Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar said that Karachi was deprived of a modern public transport system but the citizens could now travel in the Green Line bus service because of the PTI government. Over another transport project for the megacity, Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), he shared that the government has approved the transaction structure of the KCR. On the census issue, the federal minister said that it was PTI that has decided to hold another census in the country within a span of a few years but earlier it was held after 17 and 19 years despite a constitutional obligation of holding it after every 10 years.

He informed that they were ready to hold census through modern technique and soon people will know their real numbers, adding the census results would be finalized by December 2022.

Federal government has also taken the responsibility for completing the K-4 project and we will be completing K-4 project before 2023 end, supplying additional 26 Crore gallons of water to the city, he mentioned.

Asad Umar recounted that it was tax collection from Karachi that runs the entire system nationwide. Member National Assembly (MNA) Aftab Siddiqui and Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Khurrum Sher Zaman, Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh and MPA Bilal Ahmed Ghaffar also spoke.