Dera Ismail Khan-Zhob dual carriageway: ‘Major work could not be started due to unavailability of funds’

ISLAMABAD: The contractor could not be mobilised on Dera Ismail Khan-Zhob dual carriageway—major component of western route under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) till the mobilization of Chinese Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC).

This was stated by the National Highways Authority (NHA) member West Zone Shahid Ihsanullah, while addressing an e-katchehri through the authority’ Facebook page.

The Dera Ismail Khan-Zhob section of N-50 was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council around over three years ago.

Despite a significant delay, major work on the project could not be started due to the unavailability of funds.

The dualisation of Quetta-Chaman-Karachi (N-250) road would be taken on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode and the construction work on the project is expected to resume in the first quarter of 2021, the NHA official added.

He said that the government was in process of mobilizing consultant who would carry out financial viability of the project after which the project would be initiated in the first quarter of 2021.

A number of questions were raised during the e-katchehry while observing that accidents are common on this road and needs urgent attention of the government. Ihsanullah further said that only five toll are operational in Balochistan, while 13 are non-operational.

He said that the NHA collects around Rs36 billion which is totally allocated for maintenance.

He appealed to the public to pay toll tax for improving road condition.

He rejected the notion that roads condition in Balochistan is the main cause of accidents, while saying that speeding was the major cause of too many accidents.

Member NHA further said that NHA has a total network of 13,500 km across the country which carries around 80 percent of load capacity.

He further said that NHA has a network of around 3700 km in Balochistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020