Islamabad, July 16 (Online) Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz has said that four hundred billion rupees construction related projects will be initiated in the last quarter of current year. Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Thursday, he said a project envisaging construction of houses and apartments worth 145 billion rupees will be started on the 20th October.
The Information Minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan is giving special emphasis to the uplift of construction sector in order to revive the economy as well as realize the dream of disadvantaged segments of the society to own their houses.
The Information Minister said those constructing five marla houses will be given loans on five percent markup and for the ten marla houses, the mark up rate will be seven percent. He said installments will be such that the people could easily pay. He said additional thirty billion rupees have been set aside as subsidy for Naya Pakistan Housing scheme. The Information Minister expressed satisfaction over the recent auctions of Capital Development Authority saying there is an enabling environment for the construction sector in the country.
Shibli Faraz said the Prime Minister today chaired a meeting of National Coordination Committee on Housing, Construction and Development. It was attended by the country’s prominent investors and builders. He said the meeting discussed several proposals to uplift the sector including holding international road shows for construction related projects in order to attract investment of overseas Pakistanis. He said the Prime Minister has now decided to hold the meeting of the committee every two or three days keeping in view the importance of the sector which is both labor and capital intensive.
Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar said that the government has decided to expand the scope of the Ehsas Emergency Cash programme. She said its budget is being increased from 144 billion to 203 billion rupees. She said 16.9 million deserving families, which almost cover more than half of Pakistan’s population, will benefit from this scheme.
