ISLAMABAD – The cash-strapped Ministry of Communications – whose one subsidiary, the National Highway Authority alone needs Rs 600 billion to implement its ongoing projects across the country – has not received a single penny from the government or the US for the approximate damage of$ 1.5 billion inflicted to the national highways infrastructure by NATO trucks.
“We have written numerous letters to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat and the Foreign Office since 2009 – months after the formation of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan – but neither the Pakistani government nor the US or NATO have provided any monetary help to repair the damaged highways infrastructure by NATO trucks until today,” a senior official of the Communication Ministry said.
He said the government had plans to improve the road network at a cost of $7 billion in the next eight years. “The government anticipates foreign loan component of $3.7 billion from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the JIBIC. Due to the financial crunch, Pakistan needs support from development partners to maintain the highway network that had been damaged due to the increase in traffic in the last five years,” he said.
He said according to an assessment report prepared in 2009, Pakistani roads had suffered a damage of approximately $1.5 billion from 2002 to 2009 due to NATO trucks. “Pakistan bore the cost of $83 million per year for repair and maintenance of the national highways due to NATO/ISAF traffic. As many as $27 million per year were spent on the upgrading of the national highways to meet international standards $0.57 million per year were spent from 2002 to 2009 on roadside security to ensure safe passage.
Around $38.95 were spent by the ministry on the National Highway and the Motorway Police,” he said. A letter, dispatched to the PM’s Secretariat in 2009 by the Ministry of Communication titled ‘Damage caused to the national highway network due to NATO/ISAF and American transit freight to Afghanistan’, says with the increased transit traffic to Afghanistan, the intensity has increased on our three strategic national highways namely Karachi-Lahore-Peshawar-Torkham N5 or GT Road (1,819 km), Hyderabad-Larkana-Kohat-Peshawar, ie Indus Highway (1,264 km), and Karachi-Quetta-Chamman N25 (813 km).
