Islamabad: The Senate was informed Thursday that a loan agreement for the construction of Malakand Tunnel has been signed between the governments of Pakistan and South Korea and it will be completed at a cost of nine billion rupees.

Minister of State for Communications Mir Dost Muhammad Mazari told the House during question hour that South Korea will provide the soft loan for the project.

He said the total length of the tunnel and the auxiliary roads is 9.7 kilometre. He said the length of the tunnel is three kilometre.

To another question, the Minister of State told the House that an amount of ten billion and seven hundred twenty-four million rupees toll was collected by Motorways while an amount of thirty billion and ninety-seven million rupees were collected by the Highways during the last four years.

Minister for Climate Change Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan told the House in a written reply that the federal government has released an amount of 2010 million rupees for the areas hit by floods this year.

He said 710 million rupees were allocated for procurement of ration bags. He said so far about three hundred thousand ration bags have been dispatched to the flood affected areas of various districts of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab. Further distribution of ration bags to these areas is in progress.

He said 500 million rupees has recently been given to the National Disaster Management Authority for purchase of tents and relief goods for rain affectees.

To a question, he said a high level national committee on climate change chaired by the Prime Minister has been formed to review policies and monitor progress on climate change initiatives in the country.

National Climate Change Policy 2012 has specific recommendations for coastal and marine ecosystem.

He said a project “Reducing Risks and Vulnerabilities from Glacier Lake Outburst Floods” has been initiated to mitigate the risks caused by sudden discharge of huge volume of water from Glacier lakes.