PESHAWAR, Jan 3: The government has been sent a proposal to waive off duty and taxes on construction material in the quake-hit areas of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir.

A senior military official told Dawn in Mansehra that a proposal had been sent to the federal government to exempt steel, cement and other items from all duties and taxes to ensure provision of construction material on cheap rates in the quake-affected areas.

He said: “It has been proposed to discuss the proposal with the chambers of commerce and construction industry to reduce prices of essential products for the affected areas.”

He said the government would ask the business community to charge a reasonable profit in case construction materials were exempted from various duties and taxes.

Roughly over 220,000 new houses are required to be built in the quake-hit districts of the Frontier province. The production of construction material like steel, cement and other necessary things would be doubled to meet survivors’ demand for shelters.

Sources said that the construction industry in the country lacked the capacity to increase production and the government would have to import certain items.

Officials said that the Pakistan Steel Mills plans to double its production but it still has not been able to meet the requirements and the government was likely to allow import of steel, particularly iron sheets from India.

The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority has already approved four designs of earthquake-resistant houses and directed the provincial government to ensure implementation of new designs.

According to the proposal, the army in collaboration with the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority would select points in quake-hit areas where survivors would have to purchase construction material.

Officials said that a total of 270,908 houses had been damaged in five districts of the province and the government had paid Rs5.8 billion to the affected people so far.

Data collected by different agencies revealed that a total number of 111,470 houses had been damaged in Mansehra, 62,714 in Battagram, 52,058 in Abbottabad, 19,237 in Kohistan and 25,429 in Shangla districts.

The government had paid Rs25,000 to each family as the first installment, while the second installment of Rs50,000 would be paid in February.

The government has planned to construct residential colonies in those areas, which were safe from seismic movement in future and people living in high-altitude areas would get compensation once they shifted to these colonies, otherwise they would get no compensation.

Military officials said sites for construction of residential colonies would be selected after the release of the report by the geographic information system being prepared by experts from Turkey, China and army teams.