The government has reinitiated PC-1 for the construction of the new 'Moosa Pak Shaheed Bridge over River Sutlej at Emanawala costing Rs 1.96 billion as part of the Multan Development Package. According to documents available with Business Recorder, the Project would be located in the Bahawalpur District of Punjab. It focuses primarily on adequate linkage between Uch-Sharif and Trinda Muhammad Panah (on N-5) with Multan City and motorway/expressway network of Pakistan.
According to sources, after election of Raja Pervaz Ashraf as Prime Minister, the government had halted the funds of many projects pertaining to Multan Development Package which led to former Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani complaining to President Asif Ali Zardari. Subsequently, the President directed the incumbent Prime Minister to release the funds for projects relating to the Multan Development Package. Accordingly, the Prime Minister has instructed the Finance Ministry to release the funds.
After the construction of the new 'Moosa Pak Shaheed Bridge over River Sutlej at Emanawala' traffic on N-5 from Karachi to Rawalpindi and Khyber Pakhtonkhwa would use this road. The overall objective of the project is to provide adequate road connection between Uch-Sharif and Jalalpur Pirwala.
The purpose of the project is to cope with the industrial sector development and provide a productive and efficient connection with the National Highway system contributing to lower transportation costs. The Project will streamline communication through a shorter distance between Multan and Trinda Muhammad Panah for traffic commuting between Karachi and Lahore/Rawalpindi/K.P through the proposed motorway, M-4. It will reduce travel time and operating costs to the most economical and financially sustainable level for Multan bound traffic. The result will be the economic uplift of areas along the route by providing better farm-to-market access.
The project will also facilitate traffic originating from and destined to Balochistan commuting through the National Highway N-70. It would also entail considerable reduction in distance for traffic commuting between Karachi and places on N-70 via Bahawalpur. It envisages construction of a 4-lane 610 meters long bridge across River Sutlej at Emanawal. It will have 2.865 Km and 1.681 Km approach roads on Jalapur and Uch-Sharif sides respectively.
Former Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on November 16, 2009 had directed the NHA to undertake construction of additional bridge parallel to the on-going bridge in Stage-2 under a separate PC-I. The project would be financed through PSDP and executed by NHA and completed by 2016.