ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) constructed and rehabilitated about 1275 km roads in the country during last five years.
Of the total, the Authority constructed and rehabilitated 70km roads in Punjab, 235km in Sindh, 124km in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 846km roads in Balochistan, an official of NHA told APP Monday.
The authority plans to embark on various programmes for construction of new roads, bridges and improvement of existing infrastructure and launched some projects through public private partnership and is seeking local as well as foreign firms for investment.
The NHA official said that the NHA had completed three major river bridges during last five years, three major bridges on the Indus river while one each was under construction on the Ravi and the Chenab.
He said that the NHA had already constructed three segments of Motorway Network viz M-1 (Peshawar-Islamabad), M-2 (Islamabad-Lahore) and M-3 (Pindi Bhattian-Faisalabad) on a new corridor bringing remote areas on mainline and boosting economic activities. It was now constructing M 4 (Faisalabad-Khanewal-Multan) and its Faisalaabad-Gojra section has been completed and opened for traffic.
The government, he said has now planned to develop approximately 2,395 km long China Pak Economic Corridor (C-PEC) connecting Gwadar to Kashghar (China) and also decided to build Karachi Lahore Motorway (KLM). He said that strategic objectives of C-PEC also include opening hinder land areas and will bring more population into stream of benefits, which in turn will change the social complexion of people living around this corridor.
The government allocated Rs.111.56 billion for NHA’s development projects in PSDP 2014-15 and the amount included Rs.35.133 billion foreign currency and Rs76.430 billion in local currency components.
Some significant ongoing projects, he said include Faisalabad-Multan motorway (M 4), Quetta-Chaman Section of N- 25 (120 km), Peshawar-Torkham section of N 5 (45 km), Burhan- Havelian Expressway (59km) Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab section of M-8 (200 km),Lowari Tunnel and Access Roads, flood emergency rehabilitation project, Peshawar Northern Bypass and Overlay and Modernization of M-2.
