PM to lay foundation stone of Western route of CPEC next month

NHA chairman says amount allocated for construction of road links on western route has been enhanced from Rs 20b to Rs 40b

National Highway Authority (NHA) Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar said on Thursday that Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will lay the foundation stone of the western route of CPEC next month.

Talking to media personnel, the NHA chairman said that earlier Rs 20 billion had been allocated for construction of the road links on the western route which had now been doubled to Rs 40 billion, and that the project would be completed in three years.

He said that for the first time in the history of the country, development projects worth Rs 750 billion had been initiated through public-private partnership and completion of all these projects would change the entire landscape of the country.

The NHA chairman said that Karachi-Hyderabad Highway was being turned into six-lane motorway and the project would be completed by March 2017. The government would not spend any money from its own resources on these projects because they will be accomplished on BOT basis. He said that North-South motorway from Peshawar to Karachi would be completed in three years while development work on East-West motorway was also in progress. Balochistan and Sindh were being given priority in the projects, he said.

He said that six-lane motorway and highways from Gilgit to Hyderabad would have positive financial impact on at least 42 industries ultimately raising the national income.

He said that the M-2 project, which was completed in 1997 had not been repaired and improved even after 18 years. The government had started the repair work of the said route for which Frontier Works Organization (FWO) had been tasked the responsibility. The repair work would be completed by August 2016 and it would generate an income of Rs 206 billion for the government in the next 20 years, he maintained.

Shahid Ashraf said that the M-4 motorway project would link Faisalabad with Multan and would be completed with the cooperation of Asian Development Bank (ADB).

He said that M-3 will lead to Multan and Khanewal from Lahore and the PM will lay the foundation stone of the project on December 19.