Minister Expresses Anguish Over Alleged Use Of Poor-quality Material

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Mar, 2024) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister of Communications and Works (C&W) Shakeel Ahmed has expressed his anguish over the alleged use of poor-quality material in the projects of the Malakand Thana University bridge, Aladand and Bazdara roads and District Headquarters Hospital Malakand.

These projects have been completed at Rs 150 million.

The concerned authorities have been directed to submit a report within 10 days. He has also taken action over the installation of defective cable and street lights in the Agra locality.

He issued these directives while presiding over a meeting held in Peshawar regarding the projects constructed with foreign assistance here on Thursday.

Secretary Communications and Works, Idris Marwat, Managing Director Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Highways Authority Asad Ali, Chief Engineer Foreign Aid Naveed Iqbal, Project Directors Waqas, Zahid and Arslan and other officers were also present on this occasion.

During the meeting, the concerned authorities briefed the Provincial Minister in detail about the development projects being built with foreign assistance, new schemes and planning for the welfare-oriented project in the future.

Addressing the meeting, the provincial minister said that the projects constructed with foreign aid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should be closely monitored. Besides their timely completion, quality work and material should also be ensured.

He said that all these public-welfare-oriented projects cost foreign assistance and governments have to return it with mark-up. The hard-earned revenue collected from the people in the shape of tax is spent on the completion of such projects.

The provincial minister strongly emphasized that the verification of public projects should be done the relevant contractor should be paid after conducting the test of the material from a laboratory and special care should be taken that the lab report is not fake anywhere.

In this connection, the technical staff at the laboratories should be imparted proper training and the expenses and income of the laboratories should be checked.

He directed the concerned authorities that instead of sitting in the office, the technical staff of the department, especially Executive Engineers (XEN) Engineers and Sub-Divisional Officers (SDO), should go to the field and monitor the development projects in a good manner.

The provincial minister said that a bypass road will be constructed to reduce the traffic congestion on the Batkhela Bazar road.

He also directed that along with the construction of new roads, fruit-bearing trees should be planted on them at appropriate places. He said that the department should also take steps to expand the taxes along with the increase in beauty for the interest of tourists so that the economy of the province is stable.