Pakistan team arriving to study Sabarmati riverfront model

A four-member delegation from Pakistan is due to arrive in India Sunday to start a three-day official tour to visit the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project (SRDP), the Dawn online reported.

The Pakistani delegation comprises Lahore Commissioner Rashid Mehmood Langrial, Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Director-General Ahad Khan Cheema, LDA's strategic policy unit chief Moazzam Sipra, and Mustafa Kamal Chaudhry, a technical expert/consultant on urban infrastructure projects, the Dawn online reported.

"Since the LDA has initiated work related to feasibility of the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project (RRUDP) under technical assistance of a foreign consultancy firm, the core objective of the delegation is to study the SRDP and replicate it in Lahore," a Punjab government official said.

The official said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had shown interest in the SRDP after he learnt about it and started pushing the officials to visit it at the earliest.

The visit was earlier scheduled during the second week of May this year but it was postponed due to the officials' engagements in various other assignments.

"The prime minister during various briefings on the RRUDP held from time to time at his residence at Jati Umrah (Raiwind) in Lahore asked the officials to visit India."

"At a very recent meeting, Sharif again pushed the officials to go to India immediately and visit the SRDP in Ahmedabad and brief him on the project in next meeting," the official added.

According to a senior official of the LDA, the delegation headed by the commissioner will enter India through Wagah Border and reach Amritsar to catch a flight for New Delhi.

It is one of the major developmental initiatives Indian premier Narendra Modi had accomplished during his tenure as chief minister of Gujarat, the official said.