NHA insisted to complete all under-construction projects

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Communications Dr Arbab Alamgir said that National Highway Authority (NHA) has been directed to complete all the under construction projects on priority basis.

Motorway police will be equipped with modern instruments and Construction Technology Training Institutes will be established in the four provinces.

He stated this during a briefing given to him by Secretary Communications, Sharif Ahmad about the organisational structure, performance and targets of the ministry and its departments like National Highway Authority (NHA), National Highways and Motorway Police (NH and MP), Construction Technology Training Institute (CTTI) and National Transport Research Centre (NTRC).

The Secretary informed that five under construction road projects are being carried out in Sindh province, 11 in Punjab, 19 in NWFP, 23 in Balochistan while two in Northern Area and AJK with total length of 2998 kms.

He said the work of Upgradation of 335-km Karrakurram Highway (KKH) has already been started from Raikot to Khunjrab, which will be completed in 2012.

The Secretary told that CTTI is the most important institution which is imparting technical education to the students with qualification from middle to matric background enabling them to get better opportunities of employment in a bid to alleviate poverty but it has no sufficient budget as only 31.800 million rupees have been allocated for it. On the occasion the minister of state said that he himself visited the CTTI recently. It needs further consideration in terms of increase in its budget and addition of more technical courses.