The newly incumbent Secretary Communication Khalid Masood Chaudhry on Tuesday visited National Highway Authority (NHA) head office where he was briefed about the organisation's financial and administrative matters and the various development projects. The briefing was made by NHA Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar.
The chairman apprised the visiting secretary about the progress on projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
He was told that work on 288km section of the western corridor from Burhan to Dera Ismail Khan and 394km Sukkur-Multan Motorway would start next month and the Prime Minister was expected to perform the groundbreaking of both these projects.
He said that 335km section of Karakoram Highway (KKH) from Khunjrab to Rai Kot was successfully completed whereas the Hazara motorway (Burhan-Havelian) would be completed by March 2017.
The Chairman said that NHA had taken steps to encourage the private sector and the concept of BOT (Built-Operate-Transfer) in order to reduce load on the national exchequer and three major projects worth Rs 91 billion were awarded on BOT basis which included Karachi-Hyderabad motorway (M-9) and up-gradation of Islamabad-Lahore motorway (M-2). He said NHA had saved over Rs 300 billions in various projects through a transparent and vigilant award of works procedure. Secretary Communications expressed his satisfaction over the progress of various projects and hoped they would be timely completed.-PR