No hindrance in construction of LEW to be allowed

No hindrance in the construction of Lyari Expressway will be allowed.
Federal Communication Minister Babar Ghouri informed this to the officials of National Highway Authority (NHA), while presiding over a meeting to review the pace of construction on Friday.
Nine MPAs representing the areas affected by the construction of Expressway accompanied him.
Babar Ghouri said that he would discuss the issue of release of another tranche of Rs 500 million for the payment of compensation amount with Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and request him for its early release.
It was decided that as proposed earlier, the service road would not be constructed and that the owners of leased houses would be paid compensation amount at market price before demolition of their houses.
All the nine MPAs who represented their constituencies along the alignment of Lyari Expressway opposed the construction of service road and finally the idea was dropped.
However, they assured the NHA about availability of land for construction of required ramps at the sites of four inter-changes of the Expressway.
Replying to newsmen questions, the federal minister made it clear that no other hindrance in the construction of Expressway would be allowed and any impediment that might come in the way would be removed.
He said that every effort would be made to complete the Expressway project on the target date of November 2004.
He told a questioner that the delay was caused due to inability of the City Government in providing cleared space to the NHA for construction of road, besides the issue pertaining to leased houses and court cases.
Earlier, in a presentation, Project Director Yusuf Barakzai informed the minister that double lane Lyari Expressway having a total length of 16.5km from zero point Sohrab Goth to Keamari would be completed at a cost of Rs 5.1 billion.
He said that for the first year, the traffic volume on the Expressway has been estimated at 34,000 vehicles. The Expressway will have Toll Plazas at four locations.
It was informed that as per programme 15,000 housing units were to be demolished following which some 100,000 people would be affected and shifted to alternative sites of Hawksbay, Taisar and Baldia towns.