Governor Khyber Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan inaugurated the new campus of the National Centre of Excellence in Geology University of Peshawar in a ceremony on Thursday. The new campus has been (civil work) constructed at a cost of 120.1 million and includes state of art laboratories, class rooms and three hostels separately for male, female students and staff.

The governor took a round of various lab facilities available to research students in the campus. Director National Centre of Excellence in Geology Prof. Dr. Tahir Shah briefed the chief guest on the occasion.

Addressing the ceremony arranged on the sidelines of the inaugural day, the Governor said that natural resources were the backbone for a country`s constant economic growth. He added that Pakistan; especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA were endowed with the best natural resources, but the resources have not been tapped to its optimum potential. Rather it would be right to say that tapping of natural resources have been neglected in the past, he added.

Governor Mehtab said that the sitting Government was making all out efforts to attract investors for exploration projects and good news are coming in this regard.  He said that the National Centre of Excellence in Geology is one of the best centres of the country and its experts need to come forward and extend technical support to exploration projects. He urged the Director NCEG to keep close liaison with the Government Department and achieve a joint milestone of seeing a prosperous Pakistan through utilization of its own natural resources.

While talking to media he said that inauguration of FATA University was round the corner. He added that strong educational institutions can bring a real change in the country by producing best graduates and scientists for the homeland.

The Vice Chancellor UoP Prof. Dr. Muhammad Rasul Jan in his address reiterated the need for a strong industry academia liaison for practical manifestation of researches conducted at varsities. He added that the National Centre of Excellence in Geology has produced the best Geologists of the country.

National Centre of Excellence in Geology was established back in 1976 under an act of parliament, said Prof. Dr. Tahir Shah. He added 44 Kanal of land was acquired for the new campus whereas funds amounting to Rs. 334 million were provided by the Higher Education Commission for the civil work of the new campus. Dr. Tahir Shah said that the new building has been completed in eight years. He said that the project also has an (Additional) allocation of Rs. 259 million for Laboratory equipment and 200 million for strengthening of the human resource. He informed that uptill not 17 scholars have completed PhD under the project from technologically advanced countries.

About the exchange programmes the Director said that agreements with Belaurs and China have been signed for various exploration projects by the Centre.

Former Director NCEG and Vice Chancellor Karakorum University Prof. Dr. Muhammad Asif said that credit goes to (late) Dr. Hameedullah former Director NCEG for bringing the new campus project.  He said it was an emotional moment for him as the late Hameedullah couldn’t see the dream of new campus accomplished in his life time and died in an Helicopter crash when he was on an assignment of assessing the aftermath of the earth quake 2005.