Reiterating his firm resole to develop Amritsar city as a world-class tourist destination, Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday announced a grant of Rs 65 crore, in addition to Rs 100 crore already given by the state government for the integrated development of the historic city.
Addressing a massive gathering on Friday in a jam packed Guru Nanak Auditorium after the presentation made by the technical experts of the US-based Tetra Tech India Ltd on Rs 100 crore development project of Amritsar, the chief minister said that out of Rs 65 crore, a sum of Rs 20 crore each will be spent on the development of outskirts, solid waste management, lying of sewer lines and Rs 5 crore for the plantation of Neem trees in the city as a part of beautification and clean environment project.
It may be recalled that the project is likely to be executed by the reputed firms for which the global tenders had already been floated. Badal also announced that the Centre had already cleared the state government?s proposal to set up a world-class university at Amritsar over 700 acre of land, which was being identified by the district administration for this purpose. He also mentioned that recently he called on the sports and youth affairs minister Manohar Singh Gill at New Delhi, who agreed to sanction Rs 3 crore for lying Astroturf in the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and to hold the 14th National Youth Festival-2009 at Amritsar.
Badal lamented that even after 60 years of Independence, the Centre had not been able to provide the basic civic amenities to our people.