KOHAT: Over 80 per cent work on the 111-kilometre Kohat-Nizampur-Nowshera Road has been completed, a relevant official said on Saturday.

Project director of the 64-kilometere portion of the road between Kohat and Nizampur, Noor Ahmed told Dawn on telephone that with the construction of the road travel time between Rawalpindi and southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be shortened by four hours. He said the drivers would now be able to divert to Kohat and Indus highway from Nowshera way before Peshawar.

He said the drivers could take the Nizampur route to access GT Road and the Peshawar motorway.

Mr Ahmed said work on the project being executed by the Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority was started in 2016 and 85 per cent of it had been completed as the government provided the funds timely.

He said the project was being executed in two parts: 64 kilometres on the Kohat side to Khairabad and 38 kilometres from Nowshera to Nizampur.

He said Rs2.70 billion had been earmarked for the 64-kilometre stretch of the road on Kohat side.

ARREST: The Thal police of Hangu district foiled an attempt to smuggle a big quantity of hashish to Dera Ismail Khan at the Mamon Khwar checkpost the other day.

Officials said a team led by DSP Irfan Khan and in-chargeof of the checkpost Daud Khan stopped a car coming from Kurram tribal district and seized 40 kilograms of hashish from it. The driver, Amna Gul, a resident of Tank district, was arrested. Later, an FIR was registered against him under the Drugs Act.

Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority seized a truck full of substandard and fake energy drinks during an operation conducted in Kohat just after Sehr on Friday.

The authority’s deputy director, Asad Qasim, said the truck driver was fined Rs30,000.

RATION: The Kohat district administration distributed Ramazan ration package among the needy people of Gumbat tehsil the other day.

Deputy commissioner Azmatullah Wazir had directed additional assistant commissioner Vaqas Ahmed to distribute the package given by an oil and gas exploration company.

CHEQUE: A local cement factory handed over a cheque of Rs1.6 million to the medical superintendent of Liaquat Memorial Women and Children Hospital Dr Hashim Jamshed for purchasing anesthesia machine and fixing the lighting system in the health facility.

Speaking at a ceremony held on the occasion, Dr Jamshed said a major portion of the hospital building was demolished for reconstruction in 2020. He, however, regretted that the contractor had stopped work due to non-payment of dues.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2023