CHITRAL, April 21: The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) has chalked out a plan for quarrying marble and granite deposits in the district, believed to be the largest in the country.

A representative of the programme said on Wednesday that the organisation was collaborating on a two-year project with the IUCN, NWFP Engineering University, Federal Ministry of Production and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) named ‘Environmental Friendly and Safe Marble and Granite mining’.

Situated in the Hindukush Range, the district is home to major deposits containing marble, granite, serpentine and slate.

He said that geological studies identified 14 sites where quarrying bases would be set up, adding that training workshops had been held for people involved with stone extraction.

He said that blasting was not economically viable as it tended to fragment stones, depreciating them by 70 per cent. He said that the stone mining activity would help generate 10,000 jobs in the district, helping in poverty alleviation.—Correspondent