PESHAWAR, Nov 12: The World Bank has provided Rs2.9 billion to the North West Frontier Province as additional support under its Structural Adjustment Credit-II, according to official sources.

The monetary support has been extended to the provincial government for relief and rehabilitation activities in the wake of devastation caused by the October 8 earthquake in five districts of the province - Mansehra, Battagram, Abbottabad, Bisham and Kohistan.

International donor agencies have estimated that the NWFP will need over Rs61 billion for rehabilitation activities in the affected areas as a large number of public and private buildings have either been destroyed or damaged by the tremors.

The fresh disbursement of funds — made after a recently signed agreement between the federal government and the World Bank — has come in addition to Rs5.2 billion credit provided to the province in 2004 under the SAC-II, entailing introduction of fiscal and administrative reforms in the provincial public sector entities.

Under an agreement between the World Bank and the provincial government, the former was committed to provide $90 million to the NWFP for implementing the medium term reforms programme under the SAC-II.

The release of additional funds has led to increase total credit made available to the province under the SAC-II to $140 million, increasing the provincial government’s foreign liabilities to a new height.

Justifying the government’s decision to go for the credit facility, officials said that provincial kitty could not absorb further pressure amidst rising non-developmental expenditure as a result of the federal government’s decision to increase government employees’ salary by 15 per cent.

The additional credit will enable the provincial government to restore social services in the quake-hit areas where buildings of over 1,500 schools, over 100 basic health units, six hospitals and more than 10 rural health centres have collapsed.

However, officials said that the provincial government had not yet prepared a plan to utilize the money. They apprehended that without a proper plan after precisely determining actual requirements for the revival of social services, prudent utilization of the rehabilitation funds would be difficult to ensure.