MANSEHRA: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Amjid Ali Khan on Sunday directed the concerned authorities to abandon the disputed sector-A and go ahead with the construction of the remaining sectors of the Rs13 billion New Balakot City (NBC) housing project to accommodate the earthquake affected people of the red zone area of Balakot and Garlat.

Due to a tussle with the landowners in the Sector-A over plots, work on the project has been suspended for last four years.

The chief secretary visited the site of the project and was briefed about its status by Mansehra Deputy Commissioner Iqbal Hussain at a meeting attended by representatives of works and communication, police, forest and other stakeholders.

However, no official of Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra), which is responsible for developing the project, was present on the occasion. KP secretary agriculture Jamil Ahmad Khan was also present.

Directs authorities to abandon disputed sector-A

The chief secretary said work on Sector-A, which was disputed between government and landowners, should be left until development work on other sectors was completed.

Meanwhile, sources privy to the briefing told Dawn that the meeting also discussed giving back the disputed land to the owners and recovering its original price with developmental charges from them as they had been creating roadblocks in completion of the project since its launching in 2007.

The sources said the chief secretary visited the NBC after the federal and KP governments held each other responsible for delay in completion of the housing project.

Meanwhile, en employee of a construction company said that almost 50 per cent development work had been done in Sector-A, which comprises about 3,000 kanals of land out of the total 12,000 kanals of the land specified for the housing project.

The worker said the company had been receiving rent and other expenses from Erra under an agreement as its machinery was rusting away at the site for last many years.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2016