MARDAN, Sept 3 The Works and Services Department has approved Rs254 million for repairing of various roads in the district, an official told Dawn here on Wednesday.

According to Executive Engineer Ijaz Khan, out of the total Rs254.051 million, about Rs15.333 million was approved for the road repair from Pakistan Chowk to Golden Cinema, Rs19.372 million for black-topping of Shergarh to Hathyan road, Rs19.858 million for Adda Chowk to Charsadda Chowk road.

Similarly, Rs17.524 million was approved for Baghdada to Gujjar Garhi road, Rs33.902 million for Circuit House Chowk to Fazal Haque College, Rs13.930 million for College Chowk to Adal Chowk and Rs134.132 million for the road leading from Azizabad to Takhtbai along the lower Swat Canal up to Khadi Kalley, Shakh-6 and Takkar road.

The Works and Services Department would start reconstruction work on the recently damaged Hoti Bridge within the next 14 days, he added. The bridge was declared risky for heavy traffic after a sizeable portion of it was blown up by unidentified miscreants.He said that an architect had been called to re-design and estimate expenses in this regard, who would submit his report within a week. He said that the Hoti, Par Hoti, Sri and Shamsi roads would also be repaired soon.

Meanwhile, District Nazim Himayatullah Mayar has claimed that the corruption ratio in the works and other departments had increased alarmingly.

He said that the officials had estimated Rs14 million for the construction of a labour room at the District Headquarters Hospital Mardan but “we constructed it at a cost of Rs4 million only and saved Rs10 million”.

The nazim said that the works department had estimated Rs1.7 million for the construction of three rooms in the Baghdada High School while “we constructed it at Rs600,000 and saved Rs11 million”.

Similarly, he said, the officials constructed three rooms in the same school, which had started seeping during the recent rain just after its construction while “our constructed rooms are quiet safe and in good condition”.