By our correspondent
KARACHI: Communications Minister Shamim Siddiqui said on Saturday that the Ministry of Communications was going to invest Rs400 billion on new roads, highways and motorways and widening and repair of the existing ones.
Speaking to reporters after inauguration ceremony of worldcup.cricpoint.com at a local hotel, he said these projects involve investment of Rs400 billion. The most important of these projects is the Karakorum Highway, which provides connectivity with China and would be completed at a cost of Rs65-70 billion.
He said the motorway had been completed up to Faisalabad and now work would be started to extend it from Khanewal to Sukkur. By 2014 it would be connected to Karachi, he said. He said work was going on the road from Karachi to Peshawar to make it a four-lane road.
He said the construction of road from Gwadar to Khushab to Sohrab would be undertaken at a cost of Rs22 billion. A road is being built from Khuzdar to Rato Dero at a cost of Rs12 billion. The RCD Highway was being upgraded from Hub to Chaman.
Earlier, the website constructed by the team of Kalpoint.com, a commercial venture of Kalia Group was inaugurated. Speaking to the inauguration ceremony Shamim Siddiqui praised the efforts of Kalia Group in taking Pakistan to the map of IT world by establishing a software house and educating the youngsters of the nation in IT.
Veteran Urdu commentator Muneer Hussain praised the efforts of Hanif S. Kalia for bringing innovative ideas to serve the nation. General Manager Kalpoint.com Umair Ahmed Khan said the website will not only hold latest news but also world cup history, reviews, views, schedules, venues, etc. He said that one of the features of the website is online desktop and full scorecard.