K-P approves Rs6.72b for highway construction

Also gives go-ahead for provincialisation of six major roads

PESHAWAR: The provincial government on Sunday approved over Rs6 billion for the construction and maintenance of highways in the province apart from provincial station of six roads.

This was decided during a meeting of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Highways Council at the Chief Minister House in Peshawar. The meeting was attended by the Minister for Communications and Works (C&W) Akbar Ayub, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Mohibullah Additional Chief Secretary Shehzad Bangash, administrative secretaries of Finance and C&W, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority (K-PHA) managing director and other relevant officials.

K-P Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who presided over the meeting stressed the need for timely and quality completion of proposed projects since it will not only provide better transportation facilities to the public but will also help to promote tourism and restoring industries.

The meeting approved the K-PHA budget for 2019-20 worth Rs4.69 billion along with a proposed maintenance plan for the year 2019-20 estimated at Rs2.033 billion.

Provincialization of six different roads in the province was approved, including the 20 kilometer-long Baryam to Gat Road, 17km-long Khadagzai Bridge to Chakdara Road, 8.5km-long Fatehpur to Miadam Road, 29km-long Oghi-Battagram Road, 55km-long Mardan-Katlang-Buner Road and 10km-long Rahatkot to Sakhra road.

The meeting also approved a move to change the name of Chappar Road to Shahrah-e-Tanawal apart from naming provincial highway eastern, western and northern bypass as Mardan Ring Road.

Procurement of snow clearance machinery for the Barrian- Nathiagali-Abbottabad and Manglawar-Malam Jabba Roads worth Rs180 million was also approved in the meeting. The average expected income from these machines is expected to be Rs8.025 million.

Moreover, the meeting deeded to float tenders for snow land sliding every year in September to ensure the clearance of roads in time. Current standard procedures see the K-PHA start the process of procurement after the approval of the council but the meeting is usually convened after September which causes a delay in the procurement process.

Mahmood noted that snow clearance is a routine job that should not be subject to delays on account of the council meeting.

The imposition of toll tax on four different provincial highways was also approved. The move intends to raise Rs29 million in revenues. However, CM Mahmood directed that the proposed toll tax should only be imposed on commercial vehicles.

K-P okays oil, gas investment
in NMDs

The provincial government on Sunday gave its approval for opening up the newly merged tribal districts of the province for investment in the oil and gas sector.

This was directed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan while chairing a meeting of the K-P Oil and Gas Company Limited (OGCL) at the CM House in Peshawar.

During the meeting, he also directed the relevant authorities to present a summary for the inclusion of oil and gas projects in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) of the province.

CM Mahmood emphasized that any hindrances in acquiring land or other regulatory problems in building an oil refinery in the province should be resolved at the earliest.

He also directed the company officials to meet with the Frontier Works Organization (FWO) this week to sort out issues.

The participants of the meeting were given a briefing on the company’s performance last year along with corporate strategies for different periods and capacity of oil and gas reserves.

They were told that some 23 blocks of oil and gas reserves are operative in the province while the success rate in oil and gas drilling was around 50 per cent.

By comparison, the success rate in Punjab and Sindh was one in six and one in 2.5 respectively.

The participants were told that 12 blocks were currently available for investment in the tribal districts and different companies have already spent as much as Rs.5.2 billion on exploration.

Officials estimated investment as per oil and gas royalty at Rs20 billion in the next five years while it is expected to generate a revenue of Rs13.15 billion annually until 2025.

In other districts of the province, some 19 blocks were available for investment, with 12 of them having an abundance of reserves.

Officials said the investment in these blocks for a decade was Rs.15 billion.

CM in principle approved the projects and expressed that the government should get a good return on investment if it was going to expand heavily. He said that the OGCL should enter into a joint venture with oil companies already working in NMDs.

He further directed the company to submit a report by the end of the month if it wanted to work in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) sector.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2019.