Title - Centre offers package for Ludhiana Metro

The Centre has, in principle, decided to extend a technical-cum-financial package to make the metro train operational in Ludhiana, said union planning and parliamentary affairs minister Ashwani Kumar here on Wednesday. Addressing a press conference, Ashwani said the Punjab government was asked to submit a revised project report on the metro service. "The metro service will emerge as an icon of development of the state," he said, claiming that the train would also help protect the environment. "Cities in Punjab are dying and there is a need to formulate an urban development policy to upgrade the facilities there," said the union minister.

On efforts to check floods in areas close to the Ghaggar, Ashwani said the Centre was working on a Rs. 1,000-crore national project involving Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. "Though Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have given their consent to participate in the 100% centrally sponsored project, Punjab has also given a positive response on the issue. We are likely to finalise the modalities soon," he said.

The minister said the Central government had also agreed to the demand for setting up a multi-speciality hospital in the Malwa region even as the decision on its mode of operation was pending. "It may be in public-private partnership mode," he said, pointing out that the project would be carried forward after the state government allocates land for it.

The minister said the Centre was expected to constitute a technical group comprising national and international experts to revise and revisit the methodology for estimating poverty in a manner that is consistent with the current realities.