ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: Japan on Wednesday extended $80,252 to an NGO for provision of medical equipment for a hospital in Kuchlah, Balochistan.

Japanese Ambassador Nobuaki Tanaka signed the grant contract with Malik Abdul Rashid Kakar, the chairman of Kuchlak Welfare Society here, says a press release.

Japan provided $79,821 to the society in 2003 for construction of the hospital in the village.

The facility aims to provide preventive and curative health services to an estimated 100,000 under-privileged people in the region of Killi Malik Abdul Ali, Kuchlah, a slum situated in the north of Quetta city.

The hospital will be equipped with modern medical equipment such as X-ray, ultrasound and anaesthesia machines, etc.

The grant has been provided under Japan’s “Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects”.

The scheme was initiated in 1989 and Japan has so far extended $12,328,940 to small-scale social sector development projects all over Pakistan.