The participants of Inland Study Tour of 105th National Management Course visited NHA head office where they were given a detailed briefing about the organisation and its administrative and financial affairs as well as an overview of development projects currently under construction in different parts of the country.
Welcoming the guests, Chairman NHA, Shahid Ashraf Tarar dilated upon the profile of the organisation regarding construction, development and maintenance of national highways, motorways, expressways and strategic roads in Pakistan. He informed the guests that while roads under NHA constituted only 4% of country's entire network; they carried 80% of commercial and 65% of cargo traffic load. He said that development projects worth Rs 950 billion were presently under execution including the all important China Pakistan Economic Corridor. He apprised the audience about the concept of one corridor and multiple routes and said the early completion of CPEC's Western route was organisation's top priority as it passed through the less privileged areas of the country.
He said work on different sections of the western alignment had already started and expressed his hope to complete the work in the next two years. He also informed that for the first time in country's history, substantial private sector investment was encouraged towards highway schemes and projects worth over Rs 140 billion were awarded on BOT (Built -Operate -Transfer) basis during the last two years. This included Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M9) and Lahore-Sialkot Motorway. Chairman NHA said due to transparency in procurement process, NHA had managed to save Rs 300 billion to the national exchequer. The briefing was followed by a question-answer session.
Ismail Qureshi, Rector of National School of Public Policy, in his remarks appreciated NHA's role as pioneer organisation regarding construction of world class highways and motorways in Pakistan and lauded the improved standards of transparency and efficiency in the development of road infrastructure schemes. Special shields were also exchanged on the occasion.-PR