Gandhinagar : Pakistan plans to replicate the Sabarmati river front project, considered a showpiece of Narendra Modi’s rule in Gujarat, on the river Ravi in Lahore.
A four member delegation led by the Lahore Commissioner Rashid Mehmood Langarial, which visited the Sabarmati riverfront project on Monday, told media persons that they were here to study the Ahmedabad project as conditions in Lahore were fairly similar to the ones in Ahmedabad.
”We have been studying riverfront projects in various parts of the world in a bid to choose the model most appropriate for us in Lahore. We are keenly interested in the Ahmedabad project also because the river Ravi like the river Sabarmati is not a perennially flowing river,” he added.
Sources said that the visit has been initiated at the behest of the Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif who had shown interest in the project when he honoured an invitation by the new Indian prime minister and attended his swearing in ceremony as prime minister.
The delegation, which also experienced a high speed boat ride in the river, will study structural details as well as environmental impact reports and interact with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation officials to understand other details of the project. According to an Ahmedabad official the interaction with the Lahore Development Authority officials had been going on for some time before the visit materialized.
The Sabarmati riverfront project, which is considered a showpiece of the Modi government in Gujarat, has in turn drawn inspiration from the London riverfront development on the river Thames.
Meanwhile, ten members of the Shiv Sena, who were protesting against the visit of the Pakistani delegation in Ahmedabad, were detained and later let off.
RK MISRA
