KOHAT, March 25: The prime minister has announced Rs86 million for provision of gas facility to five villages of Hangu district out of which Rs25 million have been released as bonus money for purchase of land. The commissioner, Kohat division, Khalid Khan Umerzai, disclosed this at a meeting of the elders from these villages, officials of SNGPL, district coordination officer Hangu Adil Siddique and finance and revenue officials on Friday.

MPAs Mufti Janan, Atique-ur-Rehman, general manager of SNGPL Mohammad Arshad, district revenue officer of Hangu Alam Zeb and representative of Hungarian oil and gas exploration company MOL, Nisar Safdar also attended the briefing.

Mr Imdad Hussain of SNGPL in his briefing to the officials said that the production of gas from Mariamzai well was 40 million cubic feet daily while that of M-3 was three million cubic feet per day.

He informed the meeting that the company would soon start commercial supply of gas to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab from these two wells. He expressed the hope that after injection of gas in the national grid from these facilities the problem of loadshedding would decrease considerably.

Mr Umerzai discussed the purchase of land for laying the pipelines and other expenses from the bonus money of Rs25 million. He assured the delegation from Adam Banda, Nayano Banda, Mahboob Banda, Manji Khel and Qadri Banda of early supply of gas to their localities.

He asked the SNGPL and other officials to immediately prepare proposals for provision of gas to other parts of Hangu and refrain from delaying the preparation of feasibility reports.

He said the availability of gas to the most backward areas would remove the feeling of deprivation among the people and also help preserve the natural habitat.

Mr Umerzai also warned the village elders to avoid creating problems in purchase of land in their areas so that work could be completed within the stipulated time.