MIRPUR [AJK] - A UK and UAE-based Kashmiri expatriates - owned private entrepreneur and Mirpur Development Authority [MDA] signed memorandum of understanding [MOU] for the construction of three crossing bridges for pedestrians at the busiest central Allama Iqbal Road - besides installation of traffic signals at major streets of this ancestral city of over a million of UK-based Kashmiri expatriates.

M/s AJ Building Mart will borne all the expenditures to over Rs30 million for both of the projects from its own resources without relying on any financial requirement from the Mirpur Development Authority [MDA], which is already passing through financial crunch due to paucity of required funds from its own resources.

MDA DG Ch Ejaz Raza and MD AJ Builders Mart Ajmal Hussain signed the MoU for the construction of three Pedestrian Steel Bridges in front of MUST varsity campus, Divisional Headquarters Hospital and at Central Naangi shopping on main Allama Iqbal Road besides installation of traffic signals at Azad Megamart Chowk, Quaid-e-Azam chowk and at various sites on Mian Muhammad Road, Allama Iqbal Road and other busy streets of the city.

AJK minister for Sports, Youth and Culture Ch Muhammad Saeed was the chief guest at the ceremony which was attended among others by Commissioner Mirpur Division Muhammad Tayyeb Ch, Deputy Commissioner Sardar Adnan Khursheed, Director Estate Management and Administration MDA Amjad Hussain Mughal, City Administrator Tahir Mirza, Deputy Director Estate Management MDA Mirza Zulfiqar Ahmed, Focal person of the gigantic Project and Director Planning and Horticulture Mirza Kaleem Jiraal and other senior officers of the MDA, besides officials of the sponsors M/s. AJ Builders Mart, senior journalists and the city elite.

Under the MoU, the AJ Builders Mart would construct traffic signals at six different sites besides construction of three crossing bridges for pedestrians at Allama Iqbal Road.

Traffic signals would be installed in stipulated timeframe of one year whereas the bridges would be constructed in two-year period.

Speaking on the occasion AJK minister Ch Muhammad Saeed, the MDA DG, the divisional commissioner and others said that this project of public interest would open a new vista of mutual cooperation for bringing identical projects in Mirpur city and rest of the district under the private-public partnership for face-lifting of this comparatively developed city of Azad Jammu Kashmir.

They said that on the special directives of the Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan, the government is already acting upon an integrated plan for the uplift of Mirpur in view of its being the city of international repute.

Later unveiling salient features of the project and details of the MoU, Director Planning and Horticulture MDA Mirza Kaleem Jiraal told this Correspondent that under the MoU, the “MDA” seized and possessed the specified land where six (6) traffic Signals and three (3) pedestrian crossing bridges, to be built and installed at the above sites.

The MDA has agreed to lease the aforesaid “PREMISES” to the “LESSOR” for the purposes of management and exclusive marketing rights with effect from the date of signing this agreement on the following terms and conditions, he added.