Chief Minister directs for immediate ban on construction activities in tourist areas
Chitral Times Report
PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has directed the concerned authorities for immediate ban on construction activities in tourist areas of the province until master planning for those areas is finalized so that haphazard constructions in tourist areas could be prevented. He has further directed the authorities to finalize the master planning in minimum possible time period further directing them for necessary steps to fully functionalize the special purpose development authorities already set up for tourist areas so that the said master planning could be implemented in letter and spirit with the aim to develop these areas on modern lines and preserve their natural beauty.
Mahmood Khan has also directed the quarters concerned to come up with short term, mid term and long term plans to start practical work on new mega developmental schemes of tourism sector and complete the ongoing ones within the stipulated timelines. He issued these directives while chairing a progress review meeting of tourism sector here the other day. Principal Secretary to CM Amjad Ali Khan, Secretary Tourism Muhammad Tahir Orakzai, Secretary Communications and Works Ejaz Ansari and other relevant authorities attended the meeting. Moreover, he also directed the high ups of tourism departments to workout a strategy within one week time for outsourcing the feasible rest houses and other assets already handed over to tourism department in addition to a revenue generation plan for such assets to be outsourced.
Briefing the meeting about progress on projects of road infrastructure in tourist areas, it was informed that tenders of 22 kilomteres Mankiyal to Baddha Serai Road and 24 kilomteres long Thandiani Roads have been issued and work on the same would be started soon adding that both the projects would be completed with an accumulative estimated cost of Rs. 7.8 billion. The chair directed the concerned authorities to finalize all the pre requisites by the end of this month for the formal ground breaking of these mega projects.
It was further informed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Integrated Tourism Development Projects had been launched with an estimated cost of Rs. 17 billion with the aim to develop new tourist spots, construct access roads to toursit destinations, rehabilitate the existing tourism infrastructures and enhance the capacity of tourism departments for sustainable development of tourism sector in the province. It was further informed that concept papers and master planning of Integrated Tourism Zones had been cleared by the competent forum which would soon be handed over to Culture and Tourism Authority for further progress. Similarly, Destinations Investment Management Plan have also been cleared by the competent forum and the same will be handed over to the special purpose development authorities by the end of this month.
The meeting was further informed that so far an amount of Rs. 1.6 billionhas been released to various special purpose development authorities to boost tourism activities. The chair further directed for joint meeting of all the stakeholders including tourism department, Communications and Works Departments, Irrigation Department, Forest Department, the concerned divisional and district administration and the local development authorities to resolve inter related issues so that tourism development initiatives of the provincial government could be continued in an efficient manner and development projects of the tourism sector could be completed well in time.
