Lyari Expressway project remains incomplete after 15 years
Sindh High Court had ordered provincial govt to open route for public on January 1
KARACHI: The Lyari Expressway project, which was started in 2002 to ease the city’s traffic flow, has not been completed even after the passage of 15 years.
The Sindh High Court had ordered the provincial government to complete the project by December 31, 2017, and open the route for traffic on January 1, but due to lack of interest on part of the National Highway Authority (NHA) and the government, the work has continued to hit snags.
Work is underway on Lyari Expressway, starting from Sindhi Hotel till Teen Hatti and around Manghopir Interchange.
Earlier, there were impediments on a 2.2 kilometres long belt, including Mianwali Colony, Hassan Aulia village, Multan Para and Muslimabad. These settlements were removed the preceding year, despite that work on the expressway has not been completed yet.
The project was started in order to serveas a route for two million vehicles every year. It was started in 2002 with an initial cost of Rs5.1 billion and had to be completed within two years, but is still being worked on.
Officials of NHA and others concerned were contacted multiple times to inquire why the project has not been finished yet, but nobody was ready to respond on the matter.
Moreover, the project has been inundated with allegations of corruption.
Around 15,000 families affected by the project were to be provided compensation and alternate places to live, but money and residence were reportedly not provided to the affectees.