The 10th meeting of the Public-Private Partnership Policy & Monitoring Board which was held under the chair of Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar at his office on Friday gave final approval to technical and financial bids for the O&M project, procurement and installation of water meters in Lahore.
Provincial Ministers Hashim Jawan Bakht, Asad Khokhar, Advisor to CM Dr Salman Shah, chief secretary, secretaries of law, housing and finance departments, chairman P&D and others attended the meeting.
The meeting was told that seven lakh plus digital water meters, 93 percent residential and 7 percent for commercial consumers, would be installed by a company consortium with Rs.11.22 billion.
This would save WASA from the hassle of going from home to home for meter reading as bills would be sent after electronic reading. The CM expressed the satisfaction that the digital meters would save water while ensuring payments according to water usage.
It would also overcome theft of water and the WASA revenue would be enhanced as well. The scope of this project would be expanded to other cities, the CM added.
The participants were told that the digital meter assembling plant would also be set up by the company consortium to create local job opportunities.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister has issued necessary directions to the cabinet committee for the eradication of corona.
In a statement, the CM asked the cabinet committee to ensure necessary steps to save the people from the new corona variant.
He also instructed the health department to remain vigilant to ensure foolproof screening of international visitors.
The WHO recommended precautions should be followed in letter and spirit because precautions are vital for safety from the new corona variant, he added. The vaccination drive should also be accelerated, he further said.
