CHITRAL: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has said that provincial government is intensifying efforts to restore the essential facilities of roads and tracks, bridges, water supply schemes and irrigation channels in the flood-affected areas of Chitral.

Talking to the flood victims during his visit to Chitral city, Garam Chashma, Boni and Bumburi here on Thursday, he claimed that government departments made a considerable progress for planning permanent and sustainable rehabilitation of the affected areas.

“I have asked the heads of various government departments to stay in Chitral for finalising the plan and also supervising the ongoing operations for temporary restoration of basic facilities like roads, bridges and water supply schemes,” he said.

The chief minister said that there was no shortage of food items in the affected areas. He said that as many as 7,000 bags of wheat were available at the provincial reserve centre of district Chitral.

Mr Khattak said that army was also supporting the provincial government in carrying out relief and rehabilitation operations in a desired and effective manner for which the provincial government and the people of Chitral were thankful to it.

The chief minister said that he would visit Chitral time and again to review progress on the reconstruction measures for which he had held a crucial meeting of all departments concerned to chalk out a foolproof strategy in that regard.

Referring to the preliminary estimates, Mr Khattak said that the damaged communication infrastructure would be repaired and reconstructed at a cost of Rs1billion approximately while irrigation department demanded Rs43.6 million for the repair of its damaged water channels.

He said that Frontier Works Organisation would be engaged for all reconstruction works to ensure timely and up to the mark completion of the schemes.

The chief minister said that the washed away Boni-Chitral Road would be made useable before harvesting about Rs1billion worth standing crop of potato in a bid to facilitate transportation of the produce from the farms to market.

He also announced Rescue 1122 service for Chitral.

Earlier the chief minister and PTI chief Imran Khan walked through the damaged areas and inspected the washed away and damaged roads, bridges and other affected facilities.

Meanwhile, the chief minister and Imran Khan attended a briefing about latest flood situation and relief measures, given by army at Chitral Scouts Mess on Thursday.

They were told that flood in different rivers and tributaries had damaged 197 houses, 123 shops, 22 roads and tracks, 27 water schemes, four power projects, 15 bridges, and several other facilities besides 36 per cent of standing crops.

PTI secretary general Jahangir Tareen, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar, provincial ministers Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, Mohammad Atif and Shah Farman and MPAs Saleem Khan and Fozia Bibi and high ranking government officials were also accompanying them.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play