PESHAWAR, Nov 8: The Oct 8 earthquake has caused a loss of Rs15.152 billion to the provincial government’s infrastructure in the six affected districts of the Frontier province.

The education and health sectors have suffered large-scale damage in the quake-hit areas and its rehabilitation required hundreds of millions of dollars, officials said.

Provincial schools and the Literacy Department claimed a total loss of Rs6.622 billion, while the Health Department put the figure at Rs5.532 billion in the quake-ravaged districts.

According to an estimate, rehabilitation of colleges required Rs685 million.

The federal government and other semi-autonomous bodies have also conducted a survey in the quake-hit areas to assess its losses.

Officials in the provincial Crises Management Cell said that donor agencies, including the World Bank, had confirmed reported damage. Various departments and donor agencies had conducted their own surveys and had compiled data about the losses.

They said that a total of 1,738 schools for boys and 684 for girls, including primary, middle and secondary, and 15 colleges had been damaged in six quake-hit districts — Abbottabad, Mansehra, Kohistan, Shangla, Battagram and Swat.

Earlier, the provincial government had estimated that about 8,000 school buildings had either been fully or partially damaged due to the quake.

An official said that foreign donors had pledged to rehabilitate damaged infrastructure in the province. Out of six, the provincial government has declared five districts as calamity hit except Swat district.

According to official estimates, the provincial works and services department had claimed Rs1.914 billion in losses in the affected areas as a large number of link roads have disappeared due to landslides.

These estimates show that roads and bridges owned by the works and services department needed Rs1.914 billion for rehabilitation and repair works. Earlier, when widespread rain and heavy snowfall had hit the province last January the department had estimated a loss of Rs622 million.

Habib Ali, managing director of the Frontier Highway Authority (FHA), which is responsible for construction and maintenance of a major road network in the province, said that the quake had damaged about 128 km of roads and required Rs53 million for its reconstruction.

He said that the quake had damaged the Alpori-Besham Road, Haripur-Lora Maqsood-Gora Gali Road and Nathia Gali-Baryan Road.

The agriculture department had estimated a loss of Rs600 million, the police department had claimed a loss of Rs199 million, and forest and wildlife departments had claimed a loss of Rs55 million to its infrastructure.

Officials said that several prisons had also been damaged in the affected areas, which required Rs112 million, while the Frontier Constabulary’s infrastructure needed Rs10 million.

The provincial law department claimed a loss of Rs300 million in the affected districts as many court buildings have been declared dangerous.