Chairman National Highway Authority Farrukh Javeed on Thursday said the development in Balochistan is linked with the development of road infrastructure and government is fully aware of it.
Talking to PTV, he said government understands the need of highways and Gwadar port has fundamental role in the development of Balochistan and overall for the whole country.
He said, regional partnership is always increased by improving the road network in a particular area and if we do the future analysis of road infrastructure in Balochistan it would appear that trade and export centre and Karachi and Gwadar port would have an important role in this regard. "So we are investing in future", he added.
Farrukh Javed said, the road which has been expanded from Khushab would provide international access to Chaman and Asian Development Bank (ADB) would provide its funding.
He said, in phase two it would become the part of motorway. Then through Khuzdar it would lead to Shahdadkot and Ratuderu would is one of the difficult areas of Balochistan, adding that it would provide a central linkage to all the three provinces and Afghanistan. Talking about Quetta he said, it would emerge as centre of linkages and Iran link and Gwadar link are under construction.
Linkage of NWFP is also under construction which is one of the shortest route to Islamabad, Punjab, NWFP and also to Afghanistan he said, adding that recently constructed road from Torkhum to Jalalabad is a very important linkage.
He said, many areas in Balochistan are hub of fruits and vegetables so focus is to develop road network there and Asian Development Bank is also providing funds in this regard.
Farrukh Javeed said, Quetta-Taftan road, Gwadar-Khushab-Sohrab and Chaman road would soon be completed. He said, construction work of N-65, which is basic link to Sindh from Sukkar to Jackababad would be started by next year. Minor schemes like Drazband and Kolpur bypass are under construction and distance between Quetta and Sukkar would be reduced by two to three hours, he added.
Chairman National Highway Authority said, RCD highway, which is from Karachi to Quetta is 700kms and construction work is going on there. He said, any road which is responsibility of National Highway Authority in Balochistan would be completed on priority basis. In almost one year a link would be developed to Iran through Gwadar and Mand and another linkage of Chaman would also be of international standard, he added.
He said, by pursuing this road infrastructure country would become very important hub of trade activities in the region. Dams would also give water security to Balochistan, he added.
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