LAHORE: A joint venture of Pakistani and Korean firms inked on Thursday a contract with Punjab Saaf Pani Company (PSPC) to rehabilitate and upgrade dysfunctional water supply schemes and plan and design new solutions in the rural areas of Dera Ghazi Khan and Faisalabad regions.

Under the contract signed by Farasat Iqbal, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Saaf Pani Company, G3 Engineering Managing Director Chaudhry Saifullah Ejaz and Sean Kim, the vice president of YooshinEngineering, the joint venture will provide engineering and management consultancy services to provide tehsil-wise mapping in the served and un-served areas to assess the present status of water supply system coverage, community access and institutional arrangement, with necessary social surveys, studies and investigations, including water quality testing.

Punjab Minister for Housing Tanvir Aslam Malik said the contract had been awarded to the JV through a transparent process.

`It is indeed the Punjab government`s great success and an indicator to ensuring good governance in the province,` said the minister.He said PSPC was in the process of planning and designing projects which would suggest and implement various technological solutions on fast track in rural areas of the province.

On the occasion, CEO Farasat Iqbal said the company was working day and night with a team of professionals and reputed firms to meet the targets.

`The specialty of this unique initiative is that after rehabilitation and upgrading of water supply schemes or installing new water supply solutions, management would be done through Saaf Pani Committees, which comprised community representatives.