GILGIT, May 21: After the completion of Khushhal Pakistan Programme (KPP) Phase-II projects in all the five districts of Northern Areas at a cost of Rs 120 million will begin a new era of rural development.

This was stated by Saeed Ahmed Khan, Northern Areas secretary for education, health, and local government on Monday.

He said primary objective of the KPP projects in Northern Areas was to ameliorate the lot of the poor through initiation of development schemes at the grassroots level.

He added that the communities had been empowered to identify the schemes and assistance was being provided to them for sustainability of the projects. He expressed the hope that Northern Areas would enter into a new era of development and prosperity after completion of small multi-sector projects worth Rs 400 million based on community needs. He was optimistic that irrigation of additional 374,310 kanals of land would boost the yield, which would contribute a lot in making the area self-sufficient in food grain.

He disclosed that construction of 452kms of farms to market roads would help in improving their economic conditions in addition to providing vehicular accessibility to more than 200 communities. He was of the view that 122 protective bunds would save fertile lands lying along the torrents, streams and nullahs from water flood action and soil erosions.