FWO told to start work on expressway overhead bridges

The steering committee of Sheikh Rashid Expressway on Wednesday directed the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) to simultaneously start work on all the overhead bridges on the Expressway with immediate effect. The committee directed the project executing body - FWO - at a meeting held with Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in the chair.
The project would be completed at a cost of Rs 16 billion, includes construction of Expressway besides lining, and widening of Nulla Lai coupled with creation of space for provision of basic amenities to the adjoining populace of the expressway.
The meeting was also attended by Rawalpindi Nazim Raja Javed Akhlas, DCO Rawalpindi Muhammad Irfan Elahi, Nazim Rawal Town Sh. Rashid Shafiq and senior officers from RDA, Nespak and the FWO.
On the occasion, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the work on the project should be carried out at a pace with the aim to provide facilities to the commuters between Rawalpindi and Islamabad at the earliest. "We are all out to get the project completed at the earliest," he said.
During the briefing, the committee was apprised that total eight overhead bridges have to be built on the Expressway to ensure smooth and uninterrupted flow of vehicular traffic on the route.
The meeting was told that RDA had yet to provide Right of Way for the construction of Expressway. Taking note of the situation the minister directed for a speedy action. The FWO official said the Expressway would also have to play the role of multiple facilities-provider besides enhancing the capacity of Nulla Lai meeting with the requirements for flood water flow for next 100 years.
The meeting also directed all the civic bodies, designer and executor of the project must enhance co-operation with the aim to complete the project well in time or even well ahead of it.
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the people would be displaced due to the construction of the 22-km-long project should be provided with substitute or paid back according to market rates as already directed by President General Pervez Musharraf.
The meeting also reviewed the proposal to do away with a large curve on the Expressway and suggested that it should be bypassed by earmarking one-km-long route for completion of the project. This would not only help shorten the distance between both cities but also ensure smooth flow of traffic.