PESHAWAR                  -              The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gov­ernment is going to launch a project to improve and strength­en municipal infrastructures and services in order to improve the quality of life of citizens in five big cities of the province includ­ing Peshawar, Kohat, Abbottabad, Mardan and Swat.

The project titled “Citizens Improvement Project”, to be launched with the financial as­sistance of Asian Development Bank, will help the selected cit­ies improve their access to qual­ity urban services through en­hanced municipal infrastructure and strengthened institutional ca­pacities/efficiencies of municipal set ups in these cities.

This was revealed in a meet­ing of Local Government Depart­ment held here on Tuesday with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair.

Under the CIP, various schemes of clean drinking water, solid waste management, sewerage treatment plants, construction of parks and recreation sports, de­velopment of green areas will be launched in these cities.

Besides, Special Assistant to CM on Local government Kam­ran Bangash, Secretary Local Govt Mian Shakil Ahmad and Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Sha­hab Ali Shah also attended the meeting.

The meeting was given a brief­ing about the details of individual schemes to be launched in these cities under the CIP, the progress so far made to finalize the project and various other related mat­ters. The meeting was informed that work on the Engineering De­sign and Construction Manage­ment of the project is in final Stages which will be completed very soon and practical work on the project will be started by the end of this year.

Later, the media was informed that replacement of 479-kilome­ter long water supply pipes, sol­id waste management system at Shamshatu, sewerage treatment plant at Kaneeza, development of Basie Park, family areas, walking tracks and eateries are the impor­tant schemes proposed for Pesha­war City.

Similarly, Mingora Greater Wa­ter Supply Schemes, Solid Waste Management System at Kaola­ro Mela and Development of Riv­er Fronts, and other green spac­es are the proposed projects for Swat.

It was further told that projects for Mardan include Solid Waste Management at Chantar, Sew­erage Treatment Plant at Rorya, Green initiatives on Ring Road and tree plantation etc where­as Replacement of 150-kilome­ter water Supply network, Sol­id Waste Management System at Oblan, Sewerage treatment Plant at KDA, Women Development Center and Development of Wom­en Park at Tanda are important proposed schemes for Kohat.

Regarding the schemes of Ab­bottabad, the meeting was in­formed that upgradation of Choo­na Water Supply Scheme, Solid Waste Management at Dhamtor, Development of Sherwan Park Hiking Trail, Family Area, Botan­ical Garden, Boundary Walls and parking areas were the proposed projects for Hazara Divisional Headquarters.

While expressing his satisfac­tion on the progress so far made on the CIP, the Chief Minister di­rected the concerned authori­ties to complete the engineering design of the project by July this year and said that on completion the project would help improve the quality of life of the citizens in these cities