June 4, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 22,1423

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PESHAWAR, June 3: Major roads in the NWFP and tribal areas are mostly in a bad shape.

The NWFP government had established Frontier Highway Authority (FHA) last year to recondition and repair roads and highways in the province, but the authority seems to have failed to do anything about it.

Official sources conceded that at present the PHA has no financial and technical capability to look after such a huge road network.

The total length of the roads inherited from the Communication and Works Department is over 9,440 kilometres roads — 6,737 paved and 2,703 unpaved.

The dilapidated Peshawar-Charsadda-Mingora road, which links Peshawar to the northern and central parts of the province, causes enormous problems to road users apart from being the main reason for accidents.

The Peshawar-Charsadda section of the road has large potholes. Also, the fences on both sides of the of bridges along the roads have been badly damaged.

This road is said to have had fallen prey to political expediencies in the past. Whenever a politician from the Charsadda belt comes to power, work on the roads gets started, and work comes to a halt when he steps down.

Apart from Peshawar-Charsadda, Mingora-Kalam, Mingora- Miandam, Mingora-Malam Jaba, Mingora-Murghuzar, Takhtbai-Dargai, Charsadda-Takhtbai, Charsadda-Nowshera, Kohat-Thall and Peshawar- Torkham roads too are in a shambles.

Farm to market roads, a main sources of communication in the rural areas, are also in miserable condition.

The director-general FHA Col (retd) Basharat, when contacted, said that the non-availability of funds was hampering the development work. He said that the authority had engaged consultants to prepare feasibility report for Peshawar-Naguman section, and tenders would be announced by the end of October.

He said that a survey of 30-kilometres long Takhtbai-Dargai section has been initiated, and the Mardan-Charsadda section is already under construction. About Kohat-Thall road the director- general said that the authority had no plans, in the near future, for repairs.