RAWALPINDI, May 8: The district food department announced on Wednesday that wheat flour from the domestic wheat crop will start arriving in the market from Saturday.

The department has issued 16,000 permits to enable flourmills of Rawalpindi and Islamabad to buy wheat from the Gujranwala division, said Saquib Mannan, deputy director food Rawalpindi region, in a statement.

Those flourmills which want to transport wheat via motorway have been allowed so by the DCO Hafizabad, he said. Mr Mannan said the flourmills were being issued wheat according to their respective quotas and atta from these mills will be available in the market till Saturday.

He said transportation of wheat from central Punjab to Rawalpindi continues for the last four days and on Wednesday 60,000 to 70,000 bags (40kg each) have arrived.

Each day, five to six thousand metric tons of wheat is issued to flourmills in the Rawalpindi region, he said.

With the arrival of locally-produced wheat not only the quality of atta will improve but also its availability and supply to consumers, the deputy director said.