Swat Motorway to bring prosperity, development in Malakand: Khattak

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Monday said that the Swat Motorway would usher in an era of prosperity and development in the entire Malakand region and periphery districts.
He was speaking at a ceremony held at Captain Karnal Sher Khan (Shaheed) Interchange, Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway in connection with the completion of main portion of the Swat Motorway.
The traffic on motorway has been opened from Captain Karnal Sher Khan Interchange, Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway to Katlang Interchange of Swat Motorway.
The distance between two interchanges is 50 kilometers of total 180-kiolmeters motorway. The remaining 30 KMS project from Katlang to Chakdara would be completed during the next government.
The Chief Minister was upbeat about the completion of the project; saying only Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had initiated and completed a mega project and none of the other provincial governments in the country had started such scheme.
The Swat Motorway would not only boost trade and development activities across the region but people would get benefits from it in various other fields as well because the sources of transportation and communication would become trouble-free.
He said that the provincial government had paid Rs 4 billion to the land owners for land acquirement and Rs 11 billion to Frontier Works Organization (FWO). The motorway would remain in justification of FWO for two and half decades, he said.
The Chief Minister questioned that whether the rival political parties which had also ruled the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa built such mega project during last 65 years, alleging that they were involved in corruption instead of working for people's welfare-oriented projects. He brushed aside the criticism made by opposition parties about the construction of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Peshawar.
Speaking on the occasion, Asad Qaisar, Speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly said that opening of the traffic on Swat Motorway main portion would boost tourism, trade, transport and revenue while bringing the militancy-hit terrains too close to the rest of the country.
Earlier, Dr Muhammad Afzal, Director General of FWO briefed the Chief Minister about the Swat Motorway that there were how many tunnels, interchanges, service areas and continued work on the remaining potation.