Accelerating his vision to make Punjab industrial capital a world-class city, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal on Friday launched Rs 2,100 crore Mission ludhiana project to make it the most planned city in the country within three years.
He also handed over keys of newly built 1,100 houses to slum dwellers, besides flagging off a fleet of new 20 city buses for the facilitation of daily commuters. Sukhbir, giving a detailed presentation to ludhiana residents at Nirvana Bhawan, said: “Besides eight-laning of ludhiana-Ferozepur expressway, the city would be the first safe city with upgraded roads, traffic decongestion, 100 percent cover of sewerage and potable water supply, complete installation of CCTV cameras, sewerage treatment plant, underpasses and world- class landscaping.”
Describing ludhiana as one of the most preferred destination for business as per the reports of World Bank, he said that land acquisition process for expansion of Sahnewal Airport was in advanced stage of completion. “Within one-and-a-half year, ludhiana would witness landing of Boeings like Delhi and other airports in the country,” he added. Promising the citizens of the city to establish a world class downtown at par with Dubai, Sukhbir said that a chunk of more than 50 acres of land has been identified for this purpose near PAU.
Announcing a new bypass from Jagraon-ludhiana road to ladowal further leading to Jalandhar, he said that this Rs 425 crore project would be initiated in February next and be dedicated to the public in December 2015. Deputy Chief Minister said that state government had handed over keys of 1,100 newly built homes to slum dwellers constructed with total Rs 150 crore and there was proposal to build 25,000 more homes.
“After three years, there would be no slums in the city and it would get status of slum-free city. Punjab Government would launch a toll free number, where the residents could register their complaints regarding slums and effective and instant action would be taken on the plaints. Soon ludhiana would witness mechanized cleaning and washing of roads as Rs 50 crore project has been approved in this regard,” he added.
He also announced setting up of world-class amusement park, wildlife safari and multi facility Tourist Park on 1,100 acres of land at Mattewara. Under green city project, ludhiana would be developed as greenest city in the state to combat pollution menace. An ambitious safe city project, first of its kind, costing
Rs 3 crore, creating “Manchester of Punjab-ludhiana” as the State’s first safe city has also been inaugurated by Sukhbir. After formally launching the project, he said the project included installation of hundreds of CCTV cameras, sensors, automatic licence plate readers and other security gadgets. He also flagged off fleet of 20 new city buses and announced that a fleet of 250 more buses would also be included in existing fleet of 72 buses, which would include air conditioned, ordinary and mini buses.