President General Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday directed the National Highway Authority (NHA) to ensure timely completion of the ongoing major road projects while maintaining stringent quality standards.
Chairing a meeting of the communication ministry to review the pace of progress on the ongoing road projects and the future plans, the President said the NHA must ensure completion on time to check cost escalation. He took note of the poor construction of the Rs 700 million 68-km Nowshera-Pabbi section and Rs 500 million 48-km Nooriabad-Hyderabad sections and directed to initiate necessary action against those responsible.
The President underlined that quality of work must be ensured in future projects and warned that negligence would not be tolerated as far as the standard of the construction work was concerned. The President also underscored the need for involving the private sector in future projects on the basis of build-operate-transfer (BOT) and said it would also lessen the burden on the public sector.
The meeting was informed that Rs 520 billion would be spent on a series of ongoing and future projects by 2014 which would put the country on fast track of socio-economic uplift, providing efficient services to converting the country into an economic and trade corridor for the regional countries.
The President also directed the NHA to complete the Islamabad-Peshawar (M-1) Motorway by October this year and directed the finance ministry to release necessary funds. The meeting focussed on improvement in the road network in the Northern Areas.
Under the new projects, the 800-km-long Karakoram Highway (KKH) would be expanded and upgraded from Hassanabdal to Khunjerab Pass touching the Pak-China border at an estimated cost of Rs 100 billion. This includes improvement in a 335-km section of the KKH that would be completed by China. The project includes portion of 140-km of KKH that will be submerged as a result of construction of the Basha-Diamer dam.
The President also directed swift completion of the designing of the re-aligned road that will cost Rs 13 billion. He was also informed about the progress on Skardu Road, Lowari tunnel, Gilgit-Chitral Road. He said on completion these road networks would turn Northern Areas into a major tourist attraction and generate economic activity.
Communication Minister Shamim Siddique told reporters after the meeting that the President particularly directed improvement in road linkages of Gwadar. He said the Northern Bypass in Karachi was almost complete and would be inaugurated soon, while the south-bound Lyari Expressway will be completed by October this year.