Rs400bn construction projects to be launched by December
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said on Thursday that Rs 400 billion construction projects would be initiated by the end of December this year.
Addressing a news conference along with Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Dr. Sania Nishtar he said that a mega project for the construction of houses and apartments worth Rs145 billion would be started by October while many more would follow the suit.
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He also said Prime Minister Imran Khan was giving special attention to the uplift of the construction sector as this had the potential to revive the national economy as well as realize the dream of disadvantaged segments of the society to own their houses.
Faraz said the people building five marla houses would be given loans on 5 percent markup whereas, for the ten marla houses, the markup rate will be 7 percent. He said that the schedule for payment of installments would be within the reach of the low-income groups.
He said that the prime minister chaired a meeting of the National Coordination Committee on Housing, Construction, and Development on Thursday to personally monitor the situation and ensure steps to remove impediments in launching housing projects. He added that the meeting was attended by the country’s prominent builders and developers.
The meeting discussed several proposals to uplift the sector including holding international roadshows for construction-related projects to attract investment from expatriates. It also discussed in detail all issues ranging from taxes and maps and utilities. The mechanism for lending to the construction sector was also discussed,” he informed.
The objective of the meetings of the National Coordinating Committee was to maintain liaison with all stakeholders, he added.
He said that the premier has decided to hold the meeting of the committee every two or three days keeping in view the importance of the sector. The minister said the focus of the PM Imran’s policies is the middle class and poor segments of the society.
Faraz said that recent auctions of Capital Development Authority (CA) fetched more than expected returns which were the manifestation that the environment for the construction sector in the country was conducive.
He said that builders and developers and the general public should take advantage of the government’s construction policy by December. A one-window operation system, he said, was devised to reduce the time required for clearance of the documents.
Faraz said that the government has asked the banks to dedicate about Rs330 billion of their lending portfolio for the construction industry. So far, the banks’ lending for the housing sector was less than one percent whereas in neighboring India, this ratio was over 27 percent, he added.
“An increase in banks’ lending would revolutionize the housing industry as so far there was no concept of a mortgage in Pakistan,” he remarked.
Faraz said that the people of Pakistan did not suffer much as compared to many other countries. The coronavirus outbreak has made the government more determined to save the people from problems, he concluded.