Pakistan team visits India to study Sabarmati riverfront model

LAHORE: A four-member delegation from Pakistan will visit India to study the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project (SRDP), one of the major developmental initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Pakistan 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, Dawn online reported quoting a senior official from the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) on the three day visit starting today.

The delegation - headed by the Lahore commissioner Rashid Mehmood Langrial - comprises LDA Director-General Ahad Khan Cheema, LDA's strategic policy unit chief Moazzam Sipra and Mustafa Kamal Chaudhry, a technical expert or consultant on urban infrastructure projects.

"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 (if viable) in Lahore," said a Punjab government official.

"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, he again pushed the officials to go to India immediately and visit the SRDP in Ahmadabad and brief him on the project in next meeting," official said.

The SRDP is one of the major developmental initiatives of Narendra Modi accomplished during his tenure as Gujarat chief minister.

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

The Pakistani delegation is expected to reach reach Ahmadabad tomorrow and visit the SRDP. They would return to Delhi on July 22 and fly home the next day, the report said.