K-P okays 35 schemes worth over Rs56b

The provincial government has approved as many as 35 uplift schemes in different sectors at an estimated cost of Rs56.033 billion.

The uplift projects were approved during the tenth meeting of the Provincial Development Working Party (PWDP) on Thursday. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Additional Chief Secretary Shakil Qadri Khan presided over the meeting.

The forum reviewed 36 schemes of which only one project was deferred due to inadequate designs and returned to its respective department for rectification. The rest were approved.

Among the development schemes in the energy and power sector was a scheme to modify the Malakand-III to restore its annual design energy target of 550 gigawatts (GW) at a cost of Rs0.778 billion. Other projects included the solarisation of mosques and worship places under the Accelerated Implementation Programme (AIP).

It also approved the installation of an additional 40 million volts amperes (MVA) power transformer along with civil works at 132 kilovolts (kV) substation in Wana under AIP.

The projects in the law and justice sector included the construction of seven district judicial complexes and construction of 25 tehsil judicial complexes under AIP.

In the urban development sector, the forum approved the construction of a bus terminal, fruit and vegetable market and family park in Jandola, a sub-division of the Tank district and Darzinda, a sub-division of Dera Ismail Khan district under AIP.

The meeting also okayed construction of fruit and vegetable market, cattle fair markets, slaughterhouses in Orakzai under AIP.

Under the Peshawar uplift programme, the meeting approved the establishment of a park along the Ring Road in the provincial capital. It also approved schemes for the provision of municipal services to major towns of the merged tribal districts.

In the water sector, the meeting approved a national programme for the improvement of watercourses in the merged tribal districts.

The PDWP also approved a scheme to upgrade the Swat Institute of Nuclear Medicine Oncology and Radiotherapy, apart from additional works at the Peshawar Institute of Cardiology, the reconstruction and rehabilitation of health facilities damaged in Swat by floods in 2010.

It also okayed the establishment of an accident and emergency ward at the Charsadda district headquarters (DHQ) hospital and an Integrated Disease Surveillance Response System (IDRS).

The meeting further approved several schemes in the health sector for the Malakand area of Swat.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2020.