ADB, Pakistan sign $140mln loan agreement

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government of Pakistan on Wednesday signed a $140 million loan agreement to improve the roads network in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

ADB Country Director for Pakistan Xiaohong Yang and Secretary of the Economic Affairs Division in Islamabad Syed Ghazanfar Abbas Jilani signed the agreement.

Muhammad Shahab Khattak, Secretary, Communication and Works Department and Ahmed Nabi Sultan, Managing Director of the Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority signed the project agreement on behalf of the provincial government.

“The project… is a continuation of ADB support for upgrading Pakistan’s vital infrastructure to stimulate economic growth and job creation.” Yang said in the statement. “ADB continues to look forward to work very closely with the governments at the federal and provinces to accelerate economic development by -among others- developing road for improving mobility and connectivity.”

The KP provincial roads improvement project will rehabilitate eight key road sections with total length of 214 kilometers with a higher road safety and climate resilience standard to ensure for uninterrupted flows of people and goods within the province, across the country and beyond.

The $164 million project, in which the government contributing $24 million, is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. This is for the first time that the provincial road project will implement two pilot performance-based maintenance contracts covering about 104km of the roads. Under the contracts for maintenance and operations of the road assets the role of a contractor is changed from a project executor to a road asset manager. This will strengthen the role of the provincial highways department.