CM inaugurates Chakdara Interchange on Swat Motorway

By Bureau report

BATKHELA/PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Thursday formally inaugurated the Malik Ahmad Baba Ala Dhand Dheri (Chakdara) Interchange on Swat Motorway.

The interchange has been completed recently and completely opened for traffic. The chief minister was given a detailed briefing about the progress made so far on the Swat Motorway Phase-I and its formal opening for traffic. The chief minister was informed that work on Swat Motorway Phase-I was in final stages and it would be opened for traffic by September this year. The officials of Frontier Work Organisation, Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority, Communication and Works Department and other departments were also present on the occasion. The chief minister was also briefed about the progress on starting physical work on Phase-II of Swat Motorway. Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister termed the under completion Swat Motorway project as of high importance for the entire Malakand region. On completion, the chief minister said, the project would not only boost business and tourism activities in the region but also provide quality transport facilities to the public. Mahmood Khan directed the authorities concerned to complete all the prerequisites to start physical work on Phase-II of Swat Motorway. Earlier, the chief minister took aerial view of the progress on Phase-I of the project.

Meanwhile, the huge traffic jam was witnessed during the chief minister. Huge queues of vehicles were seen, forcing the passengers to wait hours to clear the roads.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan inaugurated specialised Covid-19 hospital in Peshawar to facilitate the coronavirus patients in the province. “The hospital has been set up as a model one based on global SOPs and guidelines, and is fully equipped with ventilators, monitors, oxygen, ABG machines, infusion pumps and other necessary equipment to manage hypoxemic respiratory failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock and other complications resulting from Covid-19,” said a handout. Initially, the hospital has 58 beds which will enhance to 110 within a month period. It consists of 37 Isolation beds, 16 High Dependency beds and five Intestine Care beds. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the chief minister termed the establishment of the hospital as milestone achievement of the provincial government to enhance the treatment facilities for corona patients and said that it would reduce the burden of covid patients on the tertiary care hospitals of the provincial metropolis. Mahmood Khan said that initially the capacity of health system in the province to deal with coronavirus patients was very weak but the provincial government had been working day and night and now the overall capacity of public sector hospitals has been enhanced considerably adding that efforts are still underway under well-devised plan to further strengthen the capacities of these hospitals.

He said that the provincial government was trying to turn the corona challenge into an opportunity to strengthen the health infrastructure of the province and result-oriented steps are being taken to this effect. “Initially the total Corona testing capacity in the province was just forty tests per day which has now been increased to 4000 test per days,” Mahmood Khan said, adding that in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority, the provincial government was making efforts to operationalize another 210 bedded Covid-19 hospital in Peshawar.