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LAHORE:
The government of Punjab has announced that it has categorically approved the long-awaited Innovation City project in Lahore, a Rs100 billion development plan, with a scope of generating one million jobs.
The project has the potential to redefine the landscape and become a growth engine of Punjab’s provincial capital. However, even in the previous tenure of Mian Shehbaz Sharif as Chief Minister of Punjab, this venture was unable to materialise.
Previously, the Lahore Knowledge Park Company was executing this mega project, but the development and implementation of this city, now renamed as ‘Nawaz Sharif Innovation City’, has been shifted to the Punjab Central Business District Development Authority.
On Tuesday, Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif gave approval and allocated Rs10 billion as seed money for this project.
Read: Ministry releases Rs129b for development projects
The project will be divided into four key segments. The first is the IT city, where an Information Technology and Technology district will be developed on 200 acres of land. Once completed, this will be the country’s first dedicated IT and tech mega district with state-of-the-art allied facilities for development and exports of IT-related products and services. The project is positioned as a focal point for leading IT companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, and renowned international educational institutions.
The other key segment is the Education City, where collaborations with foreign universities for quality education and research and development work will be materialised. The third is Film City, where modern studios, production houses, and allied artistic facilities will be developed for creating a complete entertainment ecosystem.
The last segment is the commercial and residential area, where modern living facilities coupled with world-class amenities will be offered. The entire project will have proper road, water, and sewerage infrastructure with allocated space for parks and green areas.
The entire project will have special economic zones, with a tax holiday for 10 years. The authority’s revenue models include self-generation, Joint Ventures, and REI. Estimates suggest that around Rs400 billion worth of investments will be attracted in the form of Public-Private-Partnerships and Joint Ventures.
Experts in the IT, education, and infrastructure sectors say that the success of this mega project depends on how quickly they materialise what they are promising. “We have previously seen that this project, then called the knowledge city, failed to materialise as promised. This time, its name has changed but the offerings are almost the same. This is a huge project, which surely needs active participation from foreign companies, firms, individuals, educational institutes, and film production houses. In addition, the province has to tackle interdepartmental and structural issues and other bureaucratic hurdles.”
However, they added that if completed successfully, this project can drive the provincial economy and make it a perfect investment hub for foreign companies to do business and for universities to collaborate on research and development and other allied studies.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 13th, 2024.
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