PESHAWAR, Feb 28: The six-year-long multi-sectoral NWFP Road Development Sector Project, aimed at reducing poverty and improving road network, will be initiated this year at a cost of $367 million, officials say.

They were speaking at a one-day workshop here on Saturday.

Officials said that the project envisaged building a 2,500- kilometre road network in the NWFP, including the Peshawar- Torkham Highway and the Bannu-Ghulam Khan Highway near the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Dainichi Consultants of Japan and Asian Development Bank jointly organised the workshop to discuss 'priorities for the road sector' that was attended by officials of the National Highway Authority, the Frontier Highway Authority and various consultants.

It was learnt that the ADB would provide $267 million for the project, while $100 million would be contributed by the government of Pakistan.

The project would also include an institutional development component addressing road safety, road asset management and capacity building.

Apart from construction of roads, the project would also focus on poverty reduction in areas along the roads and provision of cross-border facilities, including construction of custom houses near the Pakistan-Afghan border and conservation of environment in the target areas of the province.

NHA's deputy director (environment) Mushtaq Khan Khakwani cited overloading as being one of the major factor in damaging the country's highway network. He said that due to lack of legislation, the NHA could not curb the practice.

He said that the NHA was looking after a road network spanning over 8,800 kilometres throughout the country, adding that overloading compelled it to spend Rs500,000 per kilometre on the maintenance of roads every year. He said that the roads in Pakistan lost 90 per cent of their useful life in the initial six months because of the same problem.

He said that there was a proposal to ban the movement of single-axled vehicles on main highways to minimise damages caused to the road infrastructure.

Mr Khakwani said that the NHA had set up weighbridges all over the country, adding it planned to set up 70 such points to eradicate overloading.

ADB, he said, would provide financial assistance to Punjab, Sindh and the NWFP governments to set up weighbridges on inter-provincial roads for the same purpose, he added.