Construction activities in tourist areas banned
PESHAWAR: A ban should be imposed on construction activities in tourist areas in the KP province until master planning for the areas is finalized to stop haphazard constructions in the areas, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has said.
About construction in tourist spots, he directed the authorities to finalize the master planning in minimum possible time period for necessary steps to fully functionalize the special purpose development authorities already set up for tourist areas.
Khan 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 the directives regarding the ban on construction in tourist spots while chairing a progress review meeting of tourism sector here.
Briefing the meeting about progress on projects of road infrastructure in tourist areas, the meeting was informed that tenders for 22 km Mankiyal to Baddha Serai road and 24 km Thandiani road had been issued and work on it would be started soon, adding both the projects would be completed at a cost of Rs7.8 billion.
It was further informed that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Integrated Tourism Development Projects had been launched with an estimated cost of Rs17 billion to develop new tourist spots, construct access roads to tourist destinations, rehabilitate the existing tourism infrastructures and enhance the capacity of tourism departments for sustainable development of tourism sector in the province.
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, a destinations investment management plan has 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.
So far, Rs1.6 billion have been released to various special purpose development authorities to boost tourism activities.