PESHAWAR, May 28: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the NWFP government on Saturday signed an agreement for initiating a pilot project for urban poverty eradication in Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan. The UNDP deputy resident representative Hoaliang Xu and the NWFP secretary of local government, Baz Mohammad Khattak, signed the agreement.

The cost of the project is estimated at $10 million of which UNDP has already provided more than $1 million.

On this occasion Baz Mohammad Khattak said the project was a component of the National Urban Poverty Alleviation Programme and would be executed on the lines of Orangi Pilot Project, Karachi.

The project, he added, would forge linkage of the poor urban communities with district and tehsil government, banks, NGOs and the private sector for launching income-generating activities.