Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has decided to construct a bridge on River Indus to connect Kandhkot with Ghotki. The project would be launched on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode but it should be started from November. He issues these directives while presiding over a meeting on road sector on Monday at New Sindh Secretariat. The meeting was attended by P&D Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Minister for Works & Services Imdad Pitafi, Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, ACS (Dev) Mohammad Waseem, Chief Engineer Highways Prem Talreja and others.
The chief minister said that there was a huge traffic pressures, particularly of heavy goods transport at Kandhkot to and fro Punjab. Therefore, there is a dire need to construct a bridge on River Indua to connect Kandhkot with Ghotki. On this, the chief engineer highways Prem Talrija said that the proposed bridge has been designed to construct on PPP mode for Rs 7 billion. Working on that mode was in progress. The work n the bridge would be started as soon as the investment is offered.
The chief minister said that necessary progress may be made on PPP mode but by the time work on the project must be stared. "I want to open it by the end of November," the chief minister issued the directives. The proposed bridge would be two kilometres long connecting Kandhkot with Ghotki. There would a 10 kilometres approaching road from Ghotki and 13 kilometer from Kandhkot.
Minister for P&D Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani proposed that simply construction of bridge on river Indus would further increase traffic pressure on Kandhkot, therefore a bye-pass on Kandhkot Thul Road may be constructed to connect it with Indus Highway. The chief minister directed the P&D department to include the proposal of the bye-pass in the project and start work on it. The chief minister also directed the Works & Services Department to repair Link Road between National Highway and Super Highway, Karachi. The bridge also needs major repair work. This must be started on war footings because it carries the heavy industrial traffic of Steel mills and port Qasim Industrial areas.