SWABI: The construction of 10-kilometre Utla-Kund Khawar road in the mountainous region here would be started soon and the project would cost Rs200 million, official sources in the Communication and Works Department told this correspondent here on Friday.

They said that this vital road would link the mountainous region of Swabi with Haripur district besides Manjakot area onwards in Torghar district.

They said that a bridge would also be built on the Indus River to make the people’s travel easy to the Hazara region. They said that at present the people crossed the Indus River through boats at Labadam, which was very risky.

The sources said that with the completion of this road Swabi’s lush green mountainous regions would be connected with the Abbottabad terrains, which would also be helpful in promotion of tourism.

COLLABORATION STRESSED: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) chairman Tauseef H. Farooqi said here the other day that there was no dearth of talent in Pakistan and the youth needed a platform to excel in different fields.

He expressed these views in a meeting with Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology Rector Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid.

Mr Farooqi agreed to establish strong working collaboration with the GIK Institute to benefit from its faculty’s research. “We can benefit from each other’s experience in the power sector,” he said.

Mr Farooqi also spoke at a seminar on the “Nepra’s Role in Pakistan’s Power Sector”.

MICROSOFT CONTEST: The GIK Institute’s team has won the national finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup.

The GIK Institute’s project group from the Faculty of Computer Sciences and Engineering, under the supervision of Prof Dr Zahid Halim, had applied to the competition with its project.

The project has built a non-invasive portable brain computing interface that can connect around one billion people with disabilities to their smartphones via brain commands.

The team, including Mohammad Hanzla Javaid, Mohammad Usman Zeb and Abdul Rafay, will now represent Pakistan in the world finals.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2022