ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is seeking $300 million from the World Bank to improve access to education, health and market in 19 districts of the province and to improve intra-village connectivity as part of the rural service delivery activities and local development project.

According to a World Bank document made available to Dawn, 18 districts out of 35 in the province will be selected on the basis of current access conditions, poverty, vulnerability to climate change, potential impact of roads upgrade and maintenance, and will cover mainly the northern and southern areas of the newly-merged districts (NMDs).

An initial analysis says these districts are more vulnerable to climate change and remained neglected in the past.

Project will be implemented in 18 out of 35 districts

The project will provide job opportunities to the masses in the post-Covid scenario during construction and maintenance phase.

The loan for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Rural Accessibility Project will come from the International Development Association (IDA), and the project document says the major part of loan will be spent on safe and resilient access component which would entail improvement of resilience, rehabilitation and maintenance of selected rural roads across the province.

The improvement of existing roads would be selected based on geo-spatial analysis, focusing on improving accessibility to education, health and market facilities and climate change considerations.

This will include new rural roads, rehabilitation of paved roads and upgradation from unpaved to paved roads and routine maintenance of unpaved and paved roads within the existing right of way.

The loan will also finance road safety infrastructure for safe walking and cycling environment to and from schools.

The project will integrate the infrastructure for access and road safety works and the improvement of school transport services and road safety activities for primary and middle schools, and will finance the improvement of school transport.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2021