Asian Development Bank (ADB) will extend soft loan to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for construction and rehabilitation of all highways in the province on international standards. Initially the Bank will provide $150 million (Rs 30 billion) for the reconstruction of provincial highways up to 300 Kilometres, while it will later be expanded up to $250 million upon successful and satisfactory execution of the 1st phase.
Basic facilities for travellers will also be arranged alongside these highways to make the journey comfortable to the maximum extent. Meanwhile, a MoU was agreed upon between the ADB and KP Government during a meeting of the high level delegation of the Bank with Akbar Ayub Khan, Advisor to Chief Minister on Communication and Works at C&W Secretariat Peshawar.
The delegation was led by Jaingbo Ning while the country officer Pawan Karkprn also accompanied him. Secretary C&W Engr Muhammad Asif Khan, MD Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority Engr Uzair Khan, Director Engineering Ejaz Khan, consultant and other representatives were also present on this occasion.
Managing Director (MD) PHA gave a detailed briefing to the ADB officials and highlighted the road networks and its condition as well as responded to the queries of the delegates. The ADB team assured that the required loan would be provided to the KP Government as soon as possible to enable the provincial government to rehabilitate its road infrastructure with seismic and GPS supports.
It further assured that the financial and technical assistance would be further extended on improved performance of the engineering team of the provincial government. It, however, eulogized excellent engineering works of the C&W Department. Akbar Ayub thanked the ADB team for providing generous financial support to the provincial government for improving its roads and highways and expressed the confidence that it would continue the KP government to bring its infrastructure at par with international standards to work shoulder to shoulder with global community in all walks of life.