PESHAWAR: The meeting of board of directors (BoD) of Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP), which was held here on Friday after a gap of about four years, discussed projects for promotion of tourism and soft image of the province.

BoD chairman Amjad Afridi, who is also the adviser to chief minister on tourism, museums and youth affairs, presided over the board’s 19th meeting, according to a TCKP press release. Secretary tourism Aftab Akbar Durrani, TCKP managing director Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, Galliyat Development Authority DG Nazar Hussain Shah, who are the members of BOD, attended the meeting. Other member departments, including planning and development, finance, forestry, environment, EPA and archaeology, had sent their nominees to the board meeting.

The BoD chairman said that the long-awaited tourism policy of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be launched soon along with the web portal of TCKP, which would greatly facilitate tourists.

He said that other planned projects included celebration of Easter, Holi, etc, for the minorities, and inauguration of steam rail engine service from Peshawar to Attock.

The agenda of the meeting included approval of the minutes of last BoD meeting, progress report of the corporation regarding promotion of tourism activities from July to Nov 2014, future activities till June 2015 and budget of TCKP for fiscal 2014-15.

Speaking at the meeting, Mushtaq Khan said that TCKP had been a pioneer in holding events like Dilip Kumar’s birthday celebration, vintage car rally, gems exhibition, etc.

He said that TCKP would organise the annual events, including Khanpur water sports festival, Kalash festival, Shandur polo festival, Ayubia festival, etc, which played a big role in promoting the peace and soft image of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The members were also briefed by the secretary tourism about the long-term ADP projects which were in pipeline.

The projects include development of properties transferred by the provincial government to TCKP for tourists, development of tourist facilitation at Chitral, Galyat, Naran and Kohistan, establishment of picnic spots at suitable places like Malam Jabba and development of Sum Elahi Mung, Mansehra, as a tourist resort.

Published in Dawn January 10th , 2014

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