KOHAT, May 25: The NWFP government has approved the release of a special grant of Rs40 million, announced by the chief minister, for the replacement of more than 100-year-old water supply pipelines in the Kohat city.

The Executive District Officer for Finance Wahid-ur-Rehman Khattak told Dawn on Friday that the chief minister secretariat had instructed that the construction works be carried out by the Public Health Engineering Department and not by the Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) due to the “rampant corruption in it”.

He said the funds meant for the purchase of four tractor trolleys and a fire engine had also been approved which would be handed over to the TMA.

It may be recalled that the TMA bought an old bus which was converted into a fire engine back in 1988 with a cost of Rs0.43 million to deal with any untoward incident. The vehicle was in such a bad shape that the district administration had to rely on the PAF resources benefiting from which was time consuming.

He said that Rs3 million would be spent on the construction of the main bazaar road after June 2007.

The project would be handled by the Communication and Works Department as demanded by the local Jamiat-i-Ulema-Islam (Fazl) leaders. The demand was made because a 250-meter-long road constructed last year by the district government had been washed away after just four months. The district government had spent Rs3 million on that project.