PESHAWAR: A total of 115 projects have been reflected in the Annual Development Program (ADP) for the Sports, Tourism, Culture, Museums, Archaeology and Youth Affairs Department.
This was told in the Annual Development Program review meeting of the Sports, Culture, and Tourism department, held here with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in the chair.
Additional Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Amjad Ali Khan, Secretary Tourism Muhammad Abid Majeed, Director General Sports Asfandyar Khattak and other concerned officials of the department attended the meeting, said a handout.
Out of the total schemes, 77 projects are for settled districts and 29 for merged districts. Funds to the tune of Rs14.5 billion has been allocated in the current year’s budget for these projects.
It was informed that out of the 115 projects, 54 projects are in the sports sector, 34 in tourism, 15 in archaeology, five in culture and six in youth affairs.
The meeting was told that 33 projects are due for completion with a total cost of Rs6.217 billion. Similarly, 15 high priority projects worth Rs37 billion have been identified and Rs10 billion has been allocated for them in the current budget.
Briefing the meeting about establishment of playgrounds in the province, it was informed that work was underway on 76 schemes in different districts of the province out of which 57 have been completed while the remaining 19 will be completed by the end of this financial year.
Similarly, under the Accelerated Implementation Programme, a project of Rs2.405 billion has been approved for the upgradation and rehabilitation of existing sports grounds in the merged tribal districts.
Also, a project for construction of new sports grounds in each merged district had been approved for which Rs750 million had been allocated and Rs342 million for each of the tribal sub-division (ex-Frontier Regions). The meeting was informed that work was underway on the establishment of four different Integrated Tourism Zones in the province with the financial assistance of the World Bank to streamline the tourism sector in the province with a total cost of Rs3 billion.
Similarly, work is underway on setting up of tourist facilitation centres and rest areas in the province at a cost of Rs146 million.
Two major projects for construction of access roads to tourist sites of Hazara and Malakand divisions are also part of the provincial annual development programme.
Under the plan, access roads to 12 different tourist sites of Malakand division and six access roads to tourist sites of Hazara division would be constructed.
The chief minister on this occasion said that promotion of tourism and sports sectors was one of the priority areas of his government. He said that the provincial government was taking concrete steps for the promotion of these two sectors as per the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
He said that there were ample opportunities for tourism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which could be utilised to provide employment opportunities to the people and stabilize the economy of the province but no attention was paid to this important sector in the past.
The chief minister directed the concerned authorities to make progress on the ongoing development projects of tourism and sports sectors as per the stipulated timelines so that their timely completion could be ensured.