Prime Minister Imran Khan is due in Kaghan valley here today (Monday) to visit the 880MW Suki Kinari hydropower project and address a gathering of notables.
Preparations for the visit have already been completed. The prime minister would be accompanied by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and members of his cabinet from Mansehra during the visit.
Official sources told this correspondent that the prime minister would visit the Suki Kinari hydropower project, the first such scheme across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa being built under the China-Pakistan economic corridor initiative in the power sector.
“This mega energy project is scheduled to be completed in 2023, but we expect an early electricity production in December next year as work on it is in full swing at Kunhar River in Kaghan valley,” Bilal Khan, deputy director technical affairs of Suki Kinari project, told mediapersons.
The prime minister would also visit the site where the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is all set to launch a 300MW Balakot hydropower project later this year.
DAMAGED INFRASTRUCTURE: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has moved heavy machinery to Dubair area of Lower Kohistan where bridges, roads, electricity turbines, water supply schemes and indigenous chairlifts were washed away by flash floods last month.
“Thanks to Chief Minister Mahmood Khan who has ordered moving heavy machinery to the area for revival of the damaged infrastructure,” said MPA from Kohistan Abdul Ghafar at a press conference in Oghi on Sunday. Referring to his meeting with the CM, he said the work in this regard would be initiated by July 10.
The MPA said people of scores of villages were affected owing to the infrastructure damage. He said the chief minister had also asked the officials to review progress of work on Kalam-Kohistan road.
Five people sustained critical injuries when a rickshaw overturned on Darband road in Oghi area. The injured were taken to the civil hospital, Oghi, where doctors pronounced a woman dead.
