PESHAWAR, March 15: The NWFP government has approved a site at Mamoon Khattki for the establishment of an engineering university in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

This was stated in a statement on Wednesday by Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, vice-chancellor of the NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, who is also the head of the Task Force committee for setting-up the university in the frontier province. This university, he said, would be a part of six universities, being established by the HEC in collaboration with foreign countries including Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, South Korea and Netherlands.

The HEC has taken up the task in order to promote the local engineering sector in the development of industries in Pakistan. Each project will cost about Rs15-20 billion over a 10- year period, he added.

He said that the UET Peshawar would submit its PC-1 to the HEC for the approval of funding. However, regular classes would commence within next two years while construction work will be completed over a period of 10 years.

In order to ensure quality assurance and placing the university at par with the international standards, during the first phase of the project (lasting 10-15 years), a consortium of universities from partner country will send vice chancellor, heads of departments to run the programme. In this regard currently a South Korean team is on a visit to Pakistan to look into the possibilities for further collaboration.