ISLAMABAD, April 9 : Work on 6,135km long, six new motorways and highways is expected to start this year.
Acccording to a report published by Gwadar Pro, the new projects including the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will finish within three years, bringing prosperity to the most underdeveloped areas of Pakistan.
Hassan Daud CEO of the KP Board of Investment and Trade told Gwadar Pro, “The proposals of inclusion of new highways and infrastructure projects in less developed areas will bring inclusive economic growth through connectivity. Options of public private partnership is also being explored to enhance the scope of CPEC.”
Earlier, Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed announced 11 new projects including the western route of CPEC and the ground-breaking of five more projects would be performed this year.
The government of Pakistan started work on 11 projects so far which connects Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) to Baluchistan mostly under CPEC.
Among these projects, Zhob- kuchlak road is near completion as 70% work is almost finished. The 110 km-long Khuzdar- basima road is also near completion.
In the next two months work on 6 important motorways and highways including Ratodero-Shikarpur road will start, to be finished in two years.
The Sialkot- Kharian motorway is also expected to finish in next two years. As per the government announcement its ground-breaking ceremony will be held on 27th May.
Work on 80km long Swat- Fatehpur road and Swat- Dir motorway which is also the part of phase II of swat motorway is expected to start in the next two to three months.
The construction of the 153-kilometer-long Chitral-shandur highway connecting Chitral to Gigit-Baltistan will start in next two to three months and its inauguration will be done by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Chitral- Garam Chashma, the 82-kilometer-long road is also expected to launch in two months.
Altogether the total length of under construction highways around Chitral in KP province is 235 km. These roads will provide the alternate route of connecting China through Chitral.
The work on Peshawar- DI khan motorway will also start soon. The road will pass through underdeveloped areas of FATA. It has been included in CPEC and is waiting for its approval from the Chinese side.
This motorway will connect underdeveloped areas of KPK to the rest of the country making the trade of livestock, vegetables, dates etc. easy for the local people.
The work on Balkasar-Mianwali-Muzafargarh expressway is also expected to start from September this year. Feasibility work has been completed already and repair work has already been started. This 412-kilometer-long road will undergo work this year.
Construction work on Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway, an important part of western route under CPEC will start from October. After the completion of this motorway the whole network of highways and motorways from Karachi to Torkham will be completed.
