MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 17: The AJK Public Works Department will start construction of 348.2-kilometre-long roads in different parts of the AJK during this financial year.

The total estimated cost of the project is Rs683.944 million, and Rs100 million had been earmarked for it in the current fiscal year, a meeting was told here the other day.

The meeting was presided over by Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan and its participants included minister for works Syed Mumtaz Ali Gillani, secretary of works Sardar Mohammad Latif, and chief engineer highways Mir Bashir Hussain.

The meeting noted that the previous government led by People’s Party had sanctioned these roads for the 28 constituencies of Azad Kashmir barely a month before the last year’s general elections, but it had allocated only Rs30 million for the project.

Since the allocation was insufficient, the construction could not be started during the first six months of the ongoing financial year, the meeting was told. However, the sitting government had arranged Rs70 million more to start the work on the project.

The meeting decided that from next financial year these roads would be included in the annual development programme (ADP) and would be completed within two years.

The AJK prime minister stressed the participants to ensure that the roads were widened and properly metalled.