TAXILA: The long awaited re-carpeting and uplift work on the Taxila-Khanpur-Haripur highway will begin next month.

The project will help boost agriculture, trade, tourism and industry in the area and also facilitate people in travel.

This was said by Senator Talha Mehmood while talking to the press on Friday.

Mr Mehmood said the project had been allocated Rs66 million and work on it would be completed in four phases.

The project will not only improve travel facilities between but also promote tourism.

He added that even though the design and plan were approved long ago, the project was put on the back burner and the allocated funds were spent on other projects by previous governments.

The 43 kilometre highway begins at Taxila, on the Peshawar-Rawalpindi National Highway, and leads to Khanpur and Haripur.

The highway is an important link between Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Seven kilometres of the highway lie in Punjab, and the remaining 36 in KP. The road was federalised in 2010, and declared a national highway.

The completion of the project aims to strengthen trade and business ties between the two provinces.

This project was approved by the federal government almost a decade ago, but work was not initiated for political reasons.