The Japanese International Co-operation Agency (Jica) is conducting feasibility of second Kohat tunnel and access road project under the Pakistan Transport Plan Study (PTPS) phase-II.
Jica officials disclosed this at a workshop held here to review progress made on the feasibility study with National Highway Authority (NHA) chairman Major General Farrukh Javed in the chair. A series of presentations ranging from traffic forecast to tunnel geology, design and facilities were made by the Japanese consultants.
The first phase of the PTPS was carried out from June 2005 to March 2006 in which major task was to formulate a short-term plan (2005/06-2009/10) and a master plan (2005/06-2024/25) for development strategy of national transport system of Pakistan.
Elaborating background of feasibility study on second Kohat Tunnel, Japanese experts explained because of slow moving trucks, the speed of the north-bound traffic in the first tunnel reduces to 10 to 15 km/hr against the designed speed of 60 km/hr.
Therefore, the meeting was informed the tunnel section becomes a bottleneck for N-55 and, therefore, urgent implementation of second Kohat tunnel becomes imperative.
The second tunnel is proposed as a two-lane road tunnel with a design speed of 60 km/hr and the proposed site is only 30 meters away from the existing Kohat tunnel.
The study will also examine social, environmental and natural environment for improvement of N-55 Kohat tunnel based on Jica guidelines for environmental and social consideration.
Participants were told the study is expected to be completed by November this year and will be handed over to the National Transport Research Centre, Islamabad.