Committee seeks reconstruction of roads damaged by CPEC projects

MANSEHRA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s Standing Committee on Communication and Works has asked the federal government to reconstruct roads destroyed by heavy vehicles and machinery moved by companies working on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

“The roads have been destroyed by companies working on the CPEC; therefore, the federal government should receive an amount of Rs1 billion from them and transfer it to provincial governments’ account,” Zahir Shah Toru, the chairman of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly’s Standing Committee on Communication and Works Department, told reporters on Monday.

The first-ever meeting of the standing committee was held here, with Toru in the chair. Members and lawmakers from Mansehra, including Sardar Mohammad Yousuf, Babar Saleem Swati, Ahmad Hussain Shah and Naeem Sakhi were present as well.

The committee ordered an inquiry into the use of substandard material in the construction of Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Balakot, Rural Health Centre in Naran and Government Girls Degree College, Jaba.

“It’s unfortunate that construction of girls’ degree college building has been completed about four years ago but owing to substandard constriction, classes couldn’t be launched as yet,” Babar Saleem Swati told the committee. MPA Naeem Sakhi said the government had de-notified construction of 35 such colleges running in rented buildings across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, adversely affecting the education of students.

MPA Sardar Mohammad Yusuf said that the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority had leftover dozens of schools and other buildings incomplete, which should be owned by government and funds be released for completion of such facilities. MPA Ahmad Hussain Shah told the meeting that construction work of Tehsil Hospital Balakot, which started after approval of Rs100 million fund by the government, was also suspended as the approved amount was yet to be released. Briefing the participants of the committee, the executive engineer Communication and Works Department Fawad Ali Abbasi said that his department had demanded an amount of Rs645 million from Chief Minister Mehmood Khan for dualization of the Badra Interchange, which links Hazara Motorway with Karakoram Highway here in the city. “The KP Tourism Department has approved Rs2.13 billion for construction of three major roads to explore three more tourist destinations in the district,” Abbasi said.