PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Friday ordered the improvement of the conditions of village and farm-to-market roads to facilitate the transportation of agricultural products to the market.

“The entire road communication throughout the province will be interlinked,” the chief minister told a meeting at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat here.

The meeting reviewed the reconstruction and rehabilitation of farm-to-market roads across the province, including the newly-merged tribal districts, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank.

The participants, including communication and works minister Akbar Ayub, additional chief secretary Shehzad Bangash, principal secretary to the chief minister Mohammad Israr, Peshawar commissioner Shahab Ali Shah, finance secretary Shakeel Qadar, C&W secretary and ASB country director Xiaohong Yang, examined work on the 700km four dozen rural roads in the province.

The chief minister asked participants to design an integrated development programme for the erstwhile Fata’s economic revival and growth.

ADB promises support for road reconstruction, rehab in tribal districts

“We want to carry out the developmental exercise in merged districts on a war footing with a definite aim to generate trade and commercial activities giving incentive to investors for industrialisation and exploitation of natural advantages of these areas and thus, generating economic and employment opportunity for the benefit of the residents,” he said.

The ADB’s representatives promised all-out support for development projects in rural areas affected by natural calamities.

They said the reconstruction and rehabilitation projects would be completed within a stipulated time.

The ADB’s representatives said there were 25 bridges on the 700km roads affected by earthquake and floods for whose rehabilitation the bank had pledged funds.

They also promised support for certain road reconstruction and rehabilitation projects in tribal districts.

The CM underlined the need for initiating development activities in the merged districts to bring those areas and their residents to the national stream of development.

“Merger with KP has opened the erstwhile Fata to development activities. We are committed to undertaking both development and welfare activities there,” he said.

The meeting also discussed Phase-II of Kurum Tangi dam project, and those of agricultural, energy, water management and other sectors in merged districts.

The chief minister ordered speedy development of tribal areas to ensure their integration into the rest of the province.

He said micro-hydel projects would soon be handed over to the relevant communities for management and operationalisation.

The chief minister was briefed about the solarisation of schools and basic health units in tribal districts.

The relevant officials highlighted salient features of the new model for rural roads declaring it durable. They said the model had been given to the ADB for action.

The participants appreciated the ADB assistance for Mohmand dam’s construction and also said the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Mardan-Swabi roads in collaboration with the ADB would be taken shortly.

The chief minister was informed that procurement for various solarisation projects had already taken place and would be completed soon.

Mr Mahmood called for progress on the matter by next week saying a meeting will be called to review the stages of progress and the status of implementation on these projects.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2019