NHA Establish Emergency Response Centers along National Highways. Rs 23 Billion Allocated for Maintenance of Roads this year. Stakeholder Consultation Meeting on Annual Maintenance Plan 2015-16. The Stakeholders Consultation Meeting on Annual Road Maintenance Plan 2015-16 was held in Karachi today in the chair of NHA's Member South-Zone Imran Yousafzai. NHA's Regional GMs from Sindh and Balochistan gave presentations on maintenance work in their respective regions.
Representatives of Truck Owners Association and Filling Stations Association and NHA's Contractors Participated in meeting. Imran Yousafzai said that the main objectives of NHA are to develop high speed north-south economic corridor, provide linkages with Gawadar Port and enhance regional connectivity.
He said, current network of NHA is 12,131 km and current length of motorways is 690km, which will be increased to 2000 km in next three years. Work on Sukkur-Multan motorway (387 km) will start this month. NHA network is catering for 80% commercial traffic of the entire country. He said, the most heavily burdened road is N-5 (GT Road) and the need is to provide a safe and reliable alternative to N-5. The construction of motorway network is part of this effort.
NHA GM Sindh- South Sami-ur-Rehman informed that work on Karachi-Hyderabad motorway is going on. The Revised PC-1 for Lyari Expressway has been approved by the government. The work has been restarted on North Bound of Lyari Expressway and will be completed by next year. He said Karachi Northern Bypass is being widened at ICI chowk. Indus Highway from Sehwa to Retodero has been dualized. Hyderabad to Moro section of N-5 has also been improved.
The meeting was informed, overloading is badly damaging the roads and NHA does not get any funds for road maintenance. It meets the expenditure from its revenue collection. There is need for greater awareness among heavy vehicle users to follow the permissible load limits.
NHA GM RAMD Ikramus Saqlain Haider said that primary objective of such gatherings is to get valuable feedback from other stakeholders to further improve the highway safety mechanism. In order to improve highway safety, NHA has planned to establish Emergency Response Centers on every 50 km along the national highways. Allowed truck load in Pakistan is 12 ton but the trucks are carrying 24-30 ton in complete violation. This is badly affecting the roads.
The representatives of various transport groups in their remarks appreciated the effort of NHA. They said such meetings are important in sharing the views and suggestions for further improvement of road safety. They also proposed that rate of toll tax may be lowered as an incentive for avoiding axel load violations. They also stressed upon the need for training of drivers.-PR
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