PESHAWAR, Dec 6: Peshawar will soon get a new sanitation agency along the lines of the one existing in Lahore to introduce a modern waste collection and garbage disposal system.

Also, a compost plant will be installed in the provincial capital.

A multimillion rupee project to this effect was approved by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak during a high-level meeting in Islamabad, said an official release issued here on Friday.

According to the release, the preparatory work for the launch of the new system will begin in January 2014.

International firms will be hired to introduce the new system involving waste collection, garbage disposal and a reprocessing facility to produce energy.

During the meeting, it was decided that the proposed system would be introduced without laying off the staff of the Peshawar Municipal Corporation, the provincial capital’s prime sanitary and cleaning agency.

Mr Khattak directed the authorities concerned to identify, select and acquire four waste dumping sites in the four corners of the city.

He said while acquiring the sites, the current and future needs of the city should be paid attention to.

Apart from the provincial minister for local government and rural development Inayatullah Khan, others who attended the meeting included additional chief secretary in the province Khalid Pervez, secretary of local council board Attaur Rehman, and administrator of Peshawar Municipal Corporation Rasheed Ahmad Khan.

The relevant officials told the chief minister that while international firms would be hired to establish and manage the new system, the PMC’s sanitation staff would stay put.

However, some PMC staffers could be sent to the firms on deputation. The chief minister was also informed that the Peshawar Cantonment Board had also been taken into confidence over the new waste disposal and garbage disposal system for its success and thus, ensuring clean environment and high standard sanitation for the people of the provincial capital.

On the occasion, a Turkish delegation led by Chairman of OzPak JV Muhibbi Kartal, whose firm has been hired for introducing similar services in Lahore, briefed the chief minister about his firm’s works and services in the capital of Punjab.