MANSEHRA: The police department has deployed hundreds of personnel at the Balakot hydropower project for security of foreign engineers and workers.

“The work on this energy project, being executed on the Kunhar River in Balakot, has been launched and the police force deployed for the security of foreign engineers and workers,” Mirvais Niaz, deputy inspector general of police Hazara Range, told mediapersons after reviewing the security arrangements of the project on Sunday.

The DIG along with Mansehra district police officer Sajjad Khan reviewed the security arrangements during their visit to the hydropower project.

They were briefed by the Chinese engineers about the project’s execution and security requirements during the visit.

Hazara DIG, Mansehra DPO visit project site

“We have personally reviewed the arrangements as the security of foreigners as well as local workers is of supreme importance for us,” Mr Niaz said.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan will soon formally inaugurate work on the 300-megawatt Balakot hydropower project, which is being executed by Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation in Kaghan valley.

The district administration has acquired over 8,000 kanals for the Balakot hydropower project and CM’s special assistant Ahmad Hussain Shah and deputy commissioner Qasim Ali Khan held talks with the landowners last week asking them to cooperate for the smooth execution of this energy project. Meanwhile, the people of Tanawal demanded of the government to give two merged Amb and Pulrah states the status of a settled district.

“Then provincial chief minister Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan had merged the Amb and Pulrah states into the country in 1950, but these areas are still deprived of basic facilities and the government should give them the status of a district,” Qazi TaibTanoli, a local political activist, told a seminar organised here on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2021