The elders of these villages have already held protests against the proposed route of the Swat Expressway
PESHAWAR: According to a media report, construction work for the Swat Expressway will commence soon. The 81km long expressway is to be completed at a cost of Rs28.3 billion. The project will kick-start from the Karnal Sher Khan Interchange of the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway and culminate at Chakdara. It merits mention that the mega Baizai Irrigation Channel project is almost complete, at an estimated cost of Rs3.4 billion, and is expected to irrigate 25,000 acres of agricultural land in the Mardan and Malakand districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The project will irrigate barren lands of Kohi Bermol, Ghazi Baba, Pepal, Mian Khan, Babozai, Shamozai and Matta villages in Tehsil Katlang of district Mardan. It will be helpful in increasing agricultural production and reducing poverty.
The proposed Swat Expressway will pass through several villages whose land is under the command of the newly constructed Baizai Irrigation Channel. This will deprive the people of their limited and small land holdings, rendering the mega irrigation channel project useless. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that thousands of residents of these areas working in the Middle East are being repatriated due to economic slowdown there and thus are becoming jobless. The proposed expressway depriving the people of their small land holdings will further add to their woes.
The elders of these villages have already held protests and meetings in the Katlang area against the proposed route of the Swat Expressway as, according to them, the precious land was acquired without seeking their consent for the project. They maintain that the provincial government and its departments as well as the project consultants have yet to take the landowners into confidence. Also, their houses, mosques and graveyards would be demolished to make way for the expressway. Despite their worries, nobody in the government has told them anything about the project or given them any assurance in this regard. The elders have stated that the proposed project has neither been demanded by the inhabitants of the abovementioned villages, nor has any benefit for them. They asserted that their land should not be destroyed and their stance should be heard before finalising the project. Also, the elders have argued that if the expressway is necessary, then it should be built according to its old alignment from Katlang to Palai village in the Malakand District, instead of curving it through the Matta, Shamozai, Ghundo and Babozai areas. Another alternative could be widening and improving the existing Mardan-Malakand-Chakadara road with a tunnel in the Malakand mountain range which would come at a much lower cost, besides saving precious agricultural lands.
Khan Faraz
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2016.
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