ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) has approved four projects of Rs289 billion for construction of national highways in various parts of the country.
The Ecnec meeting presided over by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh discussed and approved construction of 306-km-long Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway at a cost of Rs165.679 billion, construction of 47.55-km Khyber Pass Economic Corridor (KPEC) Project at a cost of Rs77.907 billion, construction of 146-km Hoshab-Awaran-Khuzdar Section of M-8 Project, and land acquisition for Swat Motorway Phase-II at a cost of Rs20 billion.
Asad Umar, Minister for Planning Development and Reform tweeted that the Hoshab-Awaran segment of M8 motorway will further enhance connectivity of Balochistan, and play an important role in providing connectivity to the future trade through Gwadar with central Pakistan. Swat motorway extension will run from Chakdara through Saidu Sharif/Mingora, Matta, Khawazakhela all the way to Fatehpur. This will help open up the economic and tourism potential of this beautiful region The Khyber pass economic corridor project extension will link the Peshawar-Torkham motorway with N-55 at Badabher and further linking N-5 between Chamkani and Jhagra, the minister added.
The Ecnec meeting was told that the Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway project would be completed on Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis with construction of 306-km-long, 6-lane wide, access-controlled motorway.
The motorway would be a high-speed toll road facility for efficient and safe transportation, which will start from Hyderabad (end of Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway M-9) and end at Naro Canal (start of Sukkur-Multan Motorway M-5).
The project alignment passes through Jamshoro, Tando Adam, Hala, Shahdadpur, Nawabshah, Moro, Dadu, Naushahro Feroze, Mehrabpur, Rasoolpur, Larkana, Khairpur, and Sukkur.
The KPEC project consists of two components involving construction of Peshawar-Torkham Motorway and link road connecting motorway to Badabher (N-55) intersecting N-5 between Chamkani and Jhagra (55km) in length.
The project envisages construction of 47.55-km-long, 4-lane wide, and dual carriageway high-speed access controlled motorway from Peshawar to Torkham.
Peshawar-Torkham Motorway is part of the Peshawar-Jalalabad-Kabul Motorway Project.
The Ecnec was informed that the scope of work includes construction of bridges, interchanges, flyover, subways, underpasses, box culverts, cattle creep, road furniture, drainage works, and retaining walls along with allied facilities.
Hoshab-Awaran-Khuzdar section of M-8 Project envisages construction of 146-km-long road from Hoshab to Awarn with there exist motorable track from Hoshab to Awaran under administrative control of the C&W Department, Government of Balochistan.
The project road starts from Hoshab and traverses through Qila Darwesh, Ashal, Dandar, Sahar Kalat, Gorari, Laljan, Duddar, Razai, Nurdin, Madak, Malar, Labach Dargo, and finally terminates at Awaran.
The scope of works also includes relocation of utilities and acquisition of 29,200 kanals of land for 100m of Right of Way (ROW).
The Ecnec was further informed that the Swat Motorway Phase-II project envisages acquisition of 10,000 kanals of land for construction of 4-lane motorway 79.69 km in length from Chakdara to Fatehpur as Phase-II extension of the Swat Motorway.
The motorway is proposed as a high-speed toll road facility for efficient and safe transportation. The Right of Way (RoW) proposed for the motorway is 50 meters.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020