Senate Standing Committee on Communication was informed that National Highway Authority (NHA) would allow an interchange or access to Motorway within 5 Km for private sector where there are minimum 30,000 housing units. The NHA presented a report on the policy of giving access to various housing schemes from Motorways in a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Communication held with Senator Muhammad Daud Khan Achakzai Advocate in the chair at Parliament House on Tuesday.
The NHA chairman told the committee that the draft of policy had been submitted to the Executive Board for approval, saying that the draft policy would also be presented to Nespak for fine-tuning.
According to the report on the policy, in case of rural areas within 5 Km as well as in case of urban residential areas, there is sufficient existing population (minimum 30,000 housing units) where interchange is being proposed on motorway. The NHA would not allow an interchange or access to Motorway within less than 10 Km of an existing interchange on either side of the proposed access in case of rural area and within 5 Km in case of urban area.
However, the report says that the access shall be open to public and shall not be restricted. The applicant shall provide a sufficient land for the project outside the fence/Row, which will be mutated in the name of the NHA without any cost to Authority. The land shall remain the property of the NHA and shall not be given back, in case of demolition/removal, etc, of the structure in future and hence new RoW would be defined. The applicant shall provide an undertaking to this effect on stamp paper.
According to the report, area population/demographic and traffic impact study shall be carried out by the applicant through an engineering consultant and submitted for approval by the NHA. The applicant shall not have any right to carry out any commercial activity on the premises of the interchange. The NHA reserves the right to close the interchange if any requirement arises in due course of time. However, the NHA shall not do so unless there is a cogent reason such as expansion requirement, the government directives, defaults of applicant etc.
While discussing a progress report on the recommendations of the Committee regarding promotion cases of Member (from BS-20 to BS-21) in the NHA, the Secretary Ministry of Communication told the Committee, "We can promote any member of the NHA from grade 20 to 21 because the matter regarding to it was challenged in the court." He said that the rules were changed with the approval of previous ministers to promote or appoint some members from grade 20 to 21 and the NHA member Altamush has been challenged in the court. The Committee decided to summon the official of Law Ministry for discussion of the matter and seeking proposal in this regard.
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