Punjab’s spending on infrastructure development during the eight months between July and February has marginally dropped to Rs137.2 billion from Rs148.3bn last year.
The province is targeting a development expenditure of Rs337bn on socio-economic infrastructure during the present fiscal year. Given the public resource constraint, the government had arranged significantly large foreign funding as well as implemented a plan to leverage private investment in infrastructure projects. For example, the original estimates of the annual development programme (ADP) for the present year carry almost two-fifth of the total uplift allocations in the shape of foreign loans, including a Chinese loan of Rs40.8bn. Similarly, the provincial government is expecting a private investment of Rs25bn in different road infrastructure development schemes in the province during the current year.