The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has demanded the federation for giving special focus to the Newly Merged Districts of the province in the upcoming 13th national five-year plan 2024-29. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Minister for Newly Merged Districts Affairs, Industries, Commerce and Technical Education, Dr. Aamer Abdullah in this regard, has forwarded suggested projects to the Planning Commission Islamabad pertaining to communication and works, trade and IT sector, industrial development, energy, agriculture, irrigation, health, education and other sectors in NMDs that will be included in PSDP under new five years plan.
In proposed communication projects construction of Peshawar, Mohmand, Bajaur and Timergara four line Motorway has been included. Similarly, maintenance and rehabilitation of existing trade corridors in NMDs, at a cost of 10 billion rupees is also included in these proposals. The provincial minister has proposed the establishment of Axle Load Control Regime on the provincial highways to protect the roads from overloading in five places of the merged districts at a cost of 500 million rupees, while at a cost of one billion rupees on important national and provincial highways Service/Rest areas will be developed. Furthermore all the merged districts will be connected with each other through highway.
The provincial minister also proposed to include the construction of Peshawar, Tirah, Orakzai and Para Chinar road for promotion of tourism and connectivity, while 40 km of Sara Roga Sarwaki road, 120 km of Wana Jandola road and Wana Tank road. Construction of 180 km Pezo Makeen Mangalotai road to connect the region with D.I.Khan motorway, construction of new road to connect the coal extraction sites areas in Orakzai with district headquarters, construction of alternative road to Kuram for communication link to the province through Tirah and Orakzai have also been included in proposals.
