PM inaugurates 75-km long section of Karachi-Hyderabad motorway

• Nawaz says aircraft travellers most critical of motorways, comprehensive road network

Inaugurating 75 kilometres long section of the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway on Friday, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has said that Pakistan would have a six-lane motorway from Karachi to Peshawar by 2019, boosting the national economy and generating millions of new jobs.

In his address at the inauguration ceremony, he said that over 60 per cent work on the project was completed, while work was going on the remaining sections, including the service roads, interchanges and other infrastructure. He said that plantation was being done on both sides of the newly-completed section of the road, while new rest areas were being setup to ease the travel of the people.

In the next two to three years, work on all ongoing sections of the motorways would be completed and Pakistan would have a six-lane road network by 2016, the prime minister said. He said that the people were now witnessing the real creation of a new Pakistan and said it was nothing but fulfilment of all the promises made by him in 2013. He regretted that those who travelled in routine through chartered aircraft were most critical of the construction of the motorways and comprehensive road network.

Prime Minister Nawaz said that such people have no realisation about the importance of the roads for common people including farmers, workers and students who daily travel through these roads for jobs or education. He said that Pakistan too would have been at the top, had the pace of progress not been hindered in 1999 – when the army seized the control of the civilian administration in a bloodless coup d’état.

Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) Director General Lt-General Muhammad Afzal said that the project was the toughest in (FWO’s) history as heavy traffic of 30,000 to 40,000 vehicles daily plied on this section during the construction work. He mentioned the support of the Sindh government and the National Highway Authority (NHA) in completion of the M-9 project on build-operate-transfer basis.

He said that 136-kilometre-long road was the country’s lifeline and hub of economic prosperity due to its proximity with the Kemari Port. He said that the six-lane Karachi to Hyderabad section of the M-9 motorway has four sections including 10 interchanges – eight new and two old ones. A trauma centre and a school were also being considered along the road, he informed the gathering.

NHA Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar said that the authority at present was carrying out 13 projects including three motorways. On completion, the length of the motorways would be increased from 600 kilometres to 2,000 kilometres, he said and mentioned that focus was being laid on the CPEC’s western route which would pass through the under-privileged areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and would also generate employment opportunities.