PESHAWAR, May 17: Provincial Science and Information Technology Minister Hussain Ahmed Kanju on Tuesday said that a clean and pollution-free environment would be ensured in the province.

He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a month-long training programme organized by the National Academy of Higher Education for the Teaching Staff of the Kohat University of Science and Technology (Kust).

In order to achieve the goal, he said, the government in collaboration with the University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar was working on a project to convert diesel engines into CNG-powered machines.

Kust Vice-Chancellor Dr Zabita Khan Shinwari said on the occasion that work for the establishment of a medical college in Kohat was in progress as construction of hostels and academic and administration blocks had already started. He said millions of rupees had been earmarked for research activities.

Elaborating on the activities in the science and technology sectors, the minister said that projects for exploration of minerals, promotion of agriculture and research on medicinal plants had been launched and hoped that its benefits would soon be passed on to the common man.

He said the government had started a project to upgrade facilities in the existing science and technology laboratories and to set up new IT laboratories in the state-run institutions.

Mr Kanju said the government would soon start a free internet service for government departments and institutions, adding that the required machinery had already been installed at Peshawar.

He said that software for pilot projects of the online hospital management, online litigation, the case tracking system of the Service Tribunal and computerization of police stations was in the final stage.