PESHAWAR: Consultations over the 10 years development plan to spend Rs1.2 trillion in merged districts continued for fourth consecutive day here on Thursday.

A statement issued here said the meeting was held to chalk out plans for local government, public health engineering, transport, housing and tourism and sports departments.

It said the relevant officials discussed plans and strategies and identified possible hurdles to effective and rapid development.

The consultations are being held in the seven-day consultative workshop organised to frame 10 years development plan for the merged tribal districts.

Thirty per cent of the funds will be allocated for the development of local governments in merged districts.

Over the next three years, the development funds will be used to build 702 village and neighbourhood councils, 1000km farm-to-market link roads, sanitation schemes, 500 solar powered drinking water supply schemes, 100 gravity-based drinking water supply schemes, solarisation of the existing 200 DWSS, construction of drains, capacity development of elected local representatives, and projects for solid waste management.

As for the public health sector, the ongoing programmes to be completed until 2021 include the completion of 89 schemes identified in the ADP 2018-19, sanitation system programme in all tribal district headquarters, rehabilitation and solarisation of 220 DWSS under the grant of USAID in tribal districts and six water and sanitation schemes in North Waziristan with the support of Unicef.

The future plans for the PHE Department include the rehabilitation, improvement, solarisation and augmentation of existing 518 DWSS, 391 pumping and gravity DWSS for the unserved areas in all tribal districts, 10 new sanitation programmes for all tribal districts, master planning for provision of DWSS and sanitation facilities in all tribal districts, and capacity building of PHED staff members in merged areas.

Similarly, the proposed plan by the transport department for defunct Fata include purchase of land for seven district transport offices, bus terminals, housing, three trucking terminals, infrastructure development, staff procurement and establishment of driving schools.

As for the tourism, archeology and sports sector the tourism department has planned for provision of basic sports facilities, construction of 25 playgrounds at sub-divisional level, construction of seven sports complexes at district level, development of 14 tourist destinations, exploration of 20 major archeological sites, talent hunting with youth mobilisation and direct facilitation of 10,000 youths.

As a first step for intervention, the tourism department plans the establishment and strengthening of local offices for sports, culture and tourism for services delivery.

According to initial estimates, the projects proposed in the health, education, gender development and social welfare sectors are estimated to cost an amount of Rs408.977 billion whereas the infrastructure development including transport, roads, communication, urban development, water management, and energy and power components are to be allocated around Rs433.586 billion.

Similarly, the projects proposed for the economic growth including agriculture, livestock, fisheries, industries, mines, minerals and forestry are estimated to cost Rs251.362 billion. Additionally, the resource mobilisation, institutional reforms, financial inclusion, economy and capacity building projects are estimated to cost an amount of Rs133.884 billion.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2019