ISLAMABAD: National Highway Authority (NHA) is taking concrete measures to put road infrastructure on modern lines and meeting requirements of the country as well as the region.
According to an official of NHA, the recent achievements of the NHA Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, which include renovation of 357 km Lahore-Islamabad Motorway (M-2), is likely to be completed by within weeks. Habibabad flyover on Peshawar-Karachi Highway (N-5) and Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) are expected to be completed by December next year, he added. He said that NHA plans to build 80 kilometers (km) section of Multan-D.G. Khan road on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis and its work would likely start this year and completed in June 2018.
He said that at procurement stage BOT projects include improvement and widening of N-5 from M-2/N-5 junction to Taxila underpass. He also said that 20 km section widening would also include 6-lane flyover at Tarnol railway crossing. He added that 53 km Pindi Bhattian-Faisalabad Motorway (M-3) would be converted into six-lane motorway and pre-qualification applications are under evaluation stage. He said about the 95 km Sialkot-Lahore Motorway that its bid was at evaluation stage.
He said that PPP projects at preparation stage include 296 km Hyderabad-Sukker section of Karachi-Lahore Motorway (KLM) and 35 km Tarnol-Fateh Jang section of Islamabad-Kohat Highway (N-80) to be converted into four-lane divided highway. Conversion of Nowshehra-Peshawar section of N-5 into 6-lane divided expressway and two service areas on Kabul River on Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway (M-1) are also at preparation stage. He added that work on 91 km Sialkot-Lahore motorway would be undertaken in the near future. He said that the project is expected to cost Rs 56 billion and will be built on BOT basis and it would be completed in about 39 months’ time. The Motorway would start from Sahowala-Sambrial and will end at Kala Shah Kaku via Daska, Gujranwala and Kamonki.
He said that the construction work of Hakla-D.I. Khan motorway had started and it would be completed within two years. He also said that the alignment of the Hakla-D.I. Khan Motorway originates at Yarak, traverses through Paniyala, Abdul Khel, Kundal, crosses river Indus, Mianwali, Daud Khel Sikandarabad, Tarap, Pinidgheb, Fateh jang and finally terminates at Hakla on motorway (M-1).
The project envisages the construction of 285 km four-lane expressway as part of western route of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The proposed motorway will be built as a controlled access facility and would include provision of 11 interchanges, 19 flyovers, 74 underpasses, 259 culverts, 15 bridges, and three major bridges; one at River Sawan, one at River Indus and one at River Koram. The proposed expressway will have 100 meters wide right of way (ROW) to convert the proposed four lane facility to six lanes in future. Its five packages include 55 km Yarak /DI Khan (on N-55) to Rehamani Khel, 70 km Rehamani Khel-Daud Khel, 50 km Daud Khel-Tarap, 50 km Tarap-Pindigheb and 60 km Pindigheb- Hakla packages.
He said that work on Hazara Motrway is going on smoothly and would be completed next year. The 59 km long six-lane motorway starts near Burhan on M-1 (Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway) and ends at Hevelian. In order to accelerate the pace of work, the entire project has been divided into three sub-sections. He said that Section -1 (Burhan-Jarikas) is 20.3 km and about 50 per cent had been completed, Section-2 (Jarikas-Sarai Saleh) is 19.2 km and about 40 percent had been completed while Section-3 (Sarai Saleh-Havelian) is 20.02 km and over 15 percent had been completed.
