NHA chairman briefed on federal road projects

NHA chairman briefed on federal road projects

ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Highway Authority (NHA) Syed Muhammad Ali Gardezi presided over a high level meeting in which matters related to National Trade Corridor(NTC), up-gradation of Karakoram Highway (KKH) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded projects were reviewed.

NHA members and General Managers of the projects participated in the meeting.

The Chairman NHA was told that ADB is funding highway projects amounting to US$ 1834 million, out of which Hub-Uthal project and Muslim Bagh-Qila Saifullah project in Baluchistan have been completed at a cost of Rs 3032 million and Rs 1647million respectively.

He was informed that work on 231 km Qalat-Quetta-Chamanroad, Qila Saifullah-Zhob road, Waigum Rud-Khajuri road, D.I.Khan-Sarai Gambella road, Alpuri-Besham road and Sukhur Jacobabad road projects is in progress.

The Chairman was told that ADB has also expressed desire for providing more funds for upcoming NHA projects including Zhob-Mughal Kot, Qila Saifullah-Loralai-Waigum Rud,Lakpass-Noshki,Quetta Dhader and Tarnol-Fateh Jang projects.

The Chairman was told that in order to promote domestic commercial activity and facilitate regional transit trade, NHAhas under taken gigantic project of National Trade Corridor (NTC)that will connect NHA network with ports of Karachi and Gawdar.

This project comprises 18 components with total length of3800 km, and will cost Rs 366 billion. NTC, once completed, will reduce 50% travel time, 10% transportation cost and will alsoresult in decreasing the road fatalities by 50%. He was told that work on 241 km Multan-Faisalabad motorway and 109 km Hassanabdal-Havelian road, which are part of NTC, will soon start. The estimated cost of the projects is Rs. 33 billion and Rs. 55billion respectively.

The meeting was further told that up-gradation and rehabilitation of KKH stands amongst the top priorities of NHA, and its stretch from Raikot to Khunjrab is being upgraded with technical and financial assistance of China. Nearly 56% of the work is completed and rest of the work will be completed by Julynext year, costing US$510.2 million.