ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Professor Ahsan Iqbal has assured Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah that the federal government will support the provincial government of Sindh for completion of its development projects.

The minister gave this assurance in a meeting with chief minister Sindh at P-Block Secretariat of the Ministry of Planning.

During the meeting, development projects under Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) of Sindh province which includes K-4, Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), and Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway were discussed in detail.

Speaking at the occasion, Professor Iqbal assured the chief minister Sindh to support the completion of the project particularly, KCR, Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway, and others.

The KCR is among the top priorities of the prime minister, he assured Shah.

The minister informed the CM Sindh that the success of the CPEC Thar project is an example of mutual cooperation, adding that the construction work on Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway needs to be expedited.

Furthermore, the minister said that nine Industrial Zones which were supposed to be operational by 2020, but now the first Industrial Zone will be started in 2024, second in 2025, and third in 2027.

He said that the coalition government will tackle current challenges with mutual understanding: The challenge is big but we have to complete the projects in a stipulated time which remained neglected by the previous government.

Chief Minister Shah said that the federal government has an experienced team which will deliver. “There was no progress on KCR as the previous government did not pay heed to the important project,” said Shah.

He claimed that the previous government deliberately ignored the development plans of Sindh due to political reasons as a result people of Sindh suffered a lot.—NAVEED BUTT