CHITRAL: The University of Chitral has launched Pakistan’s first ever open educational resources (OER) website to facilitate its students as well as people with learning disposition all over the globe during closure the educational institutions in the wake of coronavirus threat.

The project director of the university, Prof Badshah Munir Bukhari, told journalists here on Wednesday that the website was a gateway to hundreds of universities and websites offering free online courses, audio and video lectures, e-books, research journals and countless educational material.

“University of Chitral has provided online learning management system to its students from the very outset and now with a bold forward step it has launched this (OER) website which can benefit all those people, who are actively studying in any university of the world, and those, who aspire for online degrees from home or workplace,” said Prof Badshah.

He said that the website was also a gateway to access the database of National Digital Library of Pakistan, the library of HEC and the best free online libraries of the world. He added that the website would provide a platform to the scholars and students, who were conducting research in any filed.

“The website can be accessed through the URL www.oer.uoch.pk,” said Prof Badshah.

POWER PROJECT: Both the two faults proved accurate in the Golen Gol hydropower project that had been pointed out by its chief consultant four years ago during its construction and tendered his resignation when his technical advice was ignored.

Sources in Wapda, the executing agency of the power project, told Dawn that the German consultant George had pointed out that an imperfect place had been selected for the diversion point in the intake of the power channel, which was vulnerable to flood in the stream.

They said that the consultant had proposed the passage of the national grid through the Lowari tunnel instead of Lowari Pass, which received heavy snow during the winter season as a result of which it was disconnected from the national grid for long.

Sources said that in the aftermath of glacial lake outburst flood in July last, the intake point of the power channel was overrun by the flood debris and the power house was closed down for more than six months thereby inflicting a huge loss on the national exchequer.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2020