Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan has issued orders to the concerned authorities to immediately ban construction activities in tourist spots of the province till the finalization of a master planning for them in a bid to avert haphazard construction in those areas.
Leading a progress review meeting in Peshawar, the chief minister ordered the authorities to finalize the master plan for these areas in the least possible period, as per an official statement.
He also stated that essential measures should be taken to completely functionalize the special purpose development authorities already built for tourist areas so that the master plans could be executed in letter and spirit to bring progress in those areas along modern lines and preserve their natural beauty.
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Moreover, the chief minister asked the authorities to devise short-, mid-and long-term plans to immediately start construction work on new mega-development schemes in the tourist sector and complete the current projects within the specified timelines.
He further directed high-ups of the tourism department to work out a policy within a week for outsourcing the feasible rest houses and other assets already given to the department as well as a revenue generation plan for such assets to be outsourced.
Informing the meeting regarding the progress on projects of road infrastructure in tourist areas, officials stated that tenders for 24 km Thandiani roads and 22 km Mankiyal-Baddha Serai Road had been issued and work on these projects would soon be started.
The convener ordered the completion of formalities by the end of the ongoing month for the groundbreaking of the projects.
Besides, the meeting was further briefed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Integrated Tourism Development Projects had been initiated with a projected cost of Rs 17 billion intending to develop new tourist places, build access roads to tourist spots, restore the present tourism infrastructures and improve the capacity of tourism departments for sustainable growth of tourism sector in the province.
