PDWP okays uplift schemes worth Rs36b

25 projects in health, education, auqaf, minority affairs, power and roads sectors were approved

PESHAWAR:

The provincial government on Tuesday approved 25 schemes with an estimated cost of Rs36 billion.

A meeting of the provincial development working party (PDWP) was held in Peshawar on Tuesday with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Additional Chief Secretary Shakeel Qadir Khan in the chair.

The forum considered 28 schemes of water, health, auqaf, hajj and minority affairs, elementary and secondary education, higher education, the board of revenue, roads, transport, energy and power sectors of the province.

The forum approved 25 schemes for an estimated cost of Rs36.079 billion. Three schemes were deferred due to inadequate designs and were subsequently returned to their respective departments for rectification.

The approved schemes of the water sector included improvement of the Canal Patrol Road and providing safety structures along the Lower Swat Canal in Charsadda, construction of roads along natural drains, water channels, flood carrier channels in Matta Tehsil of Swat, development of irrigation facilities and construction of causeway and FPW in Swat.

A social health protection initiative (KFW-assisted), integration of health services delivery with special focus on MNCH, LHW and nutrition programme, establishment of a paramedics college and male nursing college in Lakki Marwat, the liability of land for the Bacha Khan Medical College in Mardan, rehabilitation of all regional health centres (RHCs) in K-P and converting 50 RHCs into round the clock health facilities.

Moreover, it approved a project to strengthen all BHUs across the province and convert around 200 BHUs into round the clock SBA facilities, revamping of non-teaching district headquarters (DHQs) hospitals across K-P, and the first phase of establishing a women and children’s hospital in Swabi.

Similarly, approved schemes of auqaf, hajj and minority affairs sector included the purchase of land for constructing graveyards in the province and purchasing land to construct a boundary wall for the Chitrali community in Peshawar.

Other schemes approved including grant-in-aid to HQ 40 Division for the establishment of a Cadet College in Sararogha, South Waziristan, settlement of land records in Lower and Upper Dir, and Kalam Tehsil of Swat; the establishment of a Government College of Management Sciences in Wana, South Waziristan in the ongoing Annual Development Programme (ADP), the establishment of a Women’s University Campus in Swabi, construction of a flyover at Farooq-e-Azam Chowk in Charsadda, construction of a road from Baroch Chowk to Nakhatar Bando, Shireen Khan Chowk to Baroch, Mardan, provision of buildings and department for the National Highways and Motorway Police on the Swat Expressway, reconstruction of roads from Haryana to Hajizai, Nazimabad to Gujar Kali, and roads in Sherpao, Ziam, Abazai, Mirzadher of Charsadda.

Further, it approved a project to provide new reconductoring of an 11-kilovolt feeder in North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Bannu, Lakki, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan; restructuring of an electric inspectorate of the energy and power department.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2020.