ISLAMABAD: The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa plans to carry out an analysis of the population and demographics of two provincial agglomerations Greater Peshawar and Greater Abbottabad to propose new estimates for the urban population and identify settiement patterns.

This will be done with technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

According to current estimates, the population of KP has increased by nearly 70 per cent since the last official census held in 1998. Oneof the government`s primary concerns about undertaking development work in the province is the lack of population data.

The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction will provide a grant of $2 million while the ADB`s technical assistance special fund will provide $0.4m for technical assistance during the project that will help develop a sector road map for inclusive and sustainable urban growth.

They plan to start with an analysis of the population and demographics which will enable delineation of urban areas of the two cities which accounts for 50pc of the provincial population.The sector road map will also aim to build a case for increasing investments and improving services in urban areas.

To do this, the road map will analyse public expenditure and infrastructure deficit, formulate a strategy for emerging economic opportunities based on the comparative advantage of urban centres, prioritise key institutional and organisational challenges, recommend a skills and competency strategy, present a plan for climate change, adaptation for the key urban centres in KP and identify a list of success factors for better performance of the urban sector operation.