The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to launch an EV bikes scheme to provide travel facilities to women and promote environment-friendly transport. The provincial cabinet has approved the scheme.
Several important decisions, including the EV bikes scheme, were approved during a meeting of the provincial cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Muhammad Sohail Afridi.
In the cabinet meeting, it was decided that under the scheme, electric bikes will be provided to female students of colleges and universities and working women. The Chief Minister said that the first phase of the scheme will be launched very soon and the distribution of bikes will be carried out entirely on merit.
The Chief Minister said that after EV bikes, the provincial government will also introduce a scheme for electric rickshaws. According to him, the promotion of environment-friendly vehicles is an important step towards a clean and green environment in the province.
Provincial Information, Science and Technology Minister Shafi Jan, while briefing about the decisions of the cabinet meeting, said that the cabinet has also approved the establishment of a new tehsil named Umarzai in Charsadda district.
The meeting decided to form a committee comprising the Board of Revenue, Local Government, Planning and Development, and Finance departments, which will set criteria for future changes in administrative units in the province, including divisions, subdivisions, tehsils and sub-tehsils.
The cabinet also gave final approval to conduct the MDCAT examination through the Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA) from 2027. A committee has been formed to review the technical and legal matters in this regard.
The meeting also approved the transport monetisation policy for judicial officers, while permission was granted to forward Provincial Assembly Joint Resolution No. 240 to the federal government.
The provincial cabinet approved Rs1 billion for the rehabilitation of infrastructure affected by floods, of which Rs500 million has been allocated for the districts of Chitral.
The cabinet also approved an increase in the compensation for martyred Maulana Mirza Jan of Wana as a special case, raising it to Rs10 million.
In addition, additional funds were approved for the purchase of 54 more buses for Peshawar BRT to meet customs duties, taxes and import expenses, while bridge financing was also approved for the remaining construction work of the Khyber Institute of Child Health.
The cabinet also gave provincial approval for measures related to the hexavalent vaccine, PCV-14, DPT booster dose and Hepatitis B birth dose under the vaccination programme. This change will pave the way for including multiple vaccine components in a single vaccine, and according to the government, it will reduce financial expenditures.
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