PESHAWAR: District nazim Mohammad Asim Khan has said that a commercial IT park tower will be constructed in Peshawar with an estimated cost of Rs10 billion. He said that the CPEC IT Park Tower would be a 14-storey modern building housing a commercial complex and provincial digital compound, which would enable the people of Peshawar to compete the experts of other cities in the field of information technology.

The Peshawar nazim disclosed this while speaking as chief guest at ‘Meet the Press’ programme of Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday. He said that the commercial tower would be built over 157 kanals of the general bus stand, while the new bus stand would be constructed on 400 kanals at Sardar Garhi out of the main city.

He said that the mega development projects would be completed either by a Chinese company or National Logistic Cell. He said that an agreement in this regard would be signed soon.

The district government has initiated development projects worth billions of rupees, he said and added that Rs15 million would be spent on installation of cameras in the examination halls of Peshawar. In this regard, an agreement between the district government, education department and PTCL would be signed soon.

Asim says project to cost Rs10bn, new bus stand to be built at Sardar Garhi

The nazim said that the solarisation of over 11 basic health units had been completed in Peshawar during 2017, while as many as 13 BHUs would be solarised in the current year. He said that a laboratory was established to check milk adulteration in Peshawar.

He said that a food street would be constructed at a cost of Rs600 million in Namak Mandi where a project for revival of heritage building had been completed.

He added that a parking plaza would also be built in Namak Mandi at an estimated cost of Rs320 million, which would be completed in six months.

Asim Khan said that the district government had taken initiatives for promotion of sports activities. He said that a youth sports gala ‘Azm-i-Naujawan’ would be organised at the Qayyum Sports Complex, Peshawar, on March 15. He said that over 16 games would be played during the day-long sports event and the winners would be awarded cash prizes.

Answering a question, he said that the government was prepared to deal with dengue situation in coming season in the provincial metropolis. He said that the district government had arranged training session for members of the local councils and other relevant officials.

The district nazim said that a special campaign had been designed to create awareness among people as well as to take preventive measures about dengue disease shortly by visiting door to door. He said that the district government had provided Rs15 million for combating dengue during last season.

In reply to another question, he said that the heritage trail project would be completed by April this year. He said that the government had allocated Rs100 million for revival of historical Peshawar city wall.

Asim Khan said that the government had planned to convert the Hayatabad Food Street into Sasta bazaar. All these schemes, he said, were part of the beautification plan of the government.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2018