LANDI KOTAL, May 14: The vocational training centre (VTC) at Kam Shalman in the Khyber Agency is lying vacant for the last two years as teaching staff is yet to be sanctioned by the technical education department.

Constructed at a cost of Rs11.36 million by the Communication and Works Department, the building was handed over to Technical Education Department in June 2001. Since then the two-storey building is lying useless for want of teaching staff.

The VTC building, with a covered area of 14,041 square feet, comprises two big halls, two workshop rooms, two examination halls, a library, two classrooms, office for the principal and a staff room.

The building is still in good condition as local residents are taking care of it with the hope that it will be made functional very soon.

Some of the elders suggest that if the technical education department is unable to sanction staff for it, the building can be used for other purposes like converting it into either a hospital or a high school.

The agency headquarters hospital in Landi Kotal is at a distance of 35 kilometres from Kam Shalman, and conversion of VTC building into a hospital will serve the health related needs of the local residents.

When the project was approved in late 90s, tribal elders asked the political administration to construct the institution in the Landi Kotal Customs colony as it was adjacent to the Govt Degree College and would be of more benefit for local students. But their request was overlooked and instead the administration acquired the land at Kam Shalman which was owned by one of its office clerk.

A deputy director of the Technical Education Department insisted that the staff for VTC would be at work by the beginning of July. He said that staff sanctioning in tribal areas was a cumbersome exercise and as at present they had received an approval from the finance department, they would appoint an 18- member staff including a principal at the VTC.