Families of army personnel honored, more projects inaugurated in Tartous

DAMASCUS – Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi honored on Saturday a number of families of martyred and injured army personnel in Tartous province.

The Premier conveyed to the families the greetings of President Bashar al-Assad, on whose directions he was acting, stressing that the honoring reflects a message of appreciation and loyalty to the sacrifices of the army personnel made in line of them defending the homeland, SANA reported.

The children and families of the martyrs, he affirmed, are “our responsibility because they deserve a lot,” noting that the government has started implementing plans to fund small and micro projects aimed at empowering the martyrs’ families.

 He also promised full support for the injured members of the Syrian army.

The Premier also inaugurated more services and development projects in the coastal province with an estimated value of SYP 1 billion.

The project of al-Khreibat knot of roads on Tartous-Lattakia highway was inaugurated with an estimated cost of SYP 232 million, a quite important project to reduce the traffic congestion at the northern and southern entrances of Tartous city.

Another project was the building of the General Establishment for Road Transport in Tartous, worth SYP 87 million.

Later, al-Halaqi met with some representatives of social, economic, services and religious parties in Tartous and the MPs representing the province, stressing the importance of direct communication with the citizens in exposing “the accumulating unresolved problems” in the province related to various issues.

The Premier also visited two schools, where he stressed continued efforts to provide all the requirements of the education sector.

The Premier has been in Tartous for two days, where he yesterday laid the foundation stones for several projects, totaling around SYP 15 billion.

The projects inaugurated yesterday included the crude oil storage tanks project in Banias, the reversed pumping stations in Banias Refinery, the new expansion project in Tartous Cement Plant, the expansion project of al-Sinn Spring for Mineral Waters, the al-Watnia Private Mill and the University of Tartous, in addition to a number of workers’ housing projects.

On Thursday, the foundation stones for a number of development projects were laid in Homs province with a total value of around SYP 7.250 billion.

Those included social housing projects, workers’ and youth residences, the University Hospital Project at the Faculty of Medicine in al-Baath University, the new building of the Syrian Gas Company administration and al-Rayan Jandar gas line.