by Shafqat Ali

 

ISLAMABAD, May 11 (Gwadar Pro) – Countrywide motorways and national highways are being undertaken under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Pakistan’s National Highways Authority said on Monday afternoon. 

 

The government’s vision is to substantially increase the road density till 2030. To achieve this development goal, it is only possible by getting supports of private sector, Director of Public Relations, NHA Mariam Mumtaz said in a statement.

   

“It seems apt to recall that countrywide motorways and national highways projects are being undertaking under gigantic CPEC. NHA is committed to putting country on the track towards socio-economic development.  Public Private Partnership (PPP) has been prevalent nowadays in developing as well as developed nations of the world,” she said.

 

The official said creation of private sector interest in infrastructure projects for better service delivery is the tool being used successfully. Insufficient fiscal budget, Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocations need to be supplemented by off budget financing through Public Private Partnership. “This will help fulfill needs of national and regional trade in the upcoming years,” she added.

 

Mariam Mumtaz said PPP was becoming an essential component of NHA’s development strategy. The objectives set by NHA for the PPP include, interalia, road infrastructure development, off budget financing, efficiency, investment, sustainability and revenue generation.

 

During the last few years, NHA remained successful in providing conducive atmosphere for private sector investment in road building schemes and to-date has completed four projects of worth around Rs 135 billion under the PPP on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis, she said.

 

Construction of 2km long new flyover (Habibabad bridge) located on N-5 is one of the projects completed on PPP at cost of Rs0.831 billion. Likewise overlay and modernisation of 357km Lahore-Islamabad Motorway has also been realised costing more than Rs46 billion. Further, conversion of 4-lane highway into six-lane Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway was also taken on PPP mode, she said.

 

Mariam Mumtaz said this 136km long motorway was completed at cost of Rs44.251 billion. Another success of NHA is the completion of 89km long Lahore-Sialkot Motorway. “This 4-lane motorway is built with 6-lane structures at cost of Rs43.847 billion. This motorway has linked industrial city of Sialkot with motorways network of the country. On successful completion all these projects are operational now,” she elaborated.

 

Pursuant to PSDP plus programme of the government, NHA has developed a comprehensive portfolio and accordingly 9 more projects having total length of 1726km are in pipeline for implementation through the PPP modality. Completion of Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway will realise the dream of Peshawar-Karachi Motorway (PKM), and travelling time between Peshawar and Karachi will be reduced to only 16 hours from two days travelling, she said.

 

Mariam Mumtaz said in order to ensure better planning of Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway project and attract private investment in this scheme, National Highway Authority also arranged a stakeholders’ consultation with the cooperation of Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) at NHA Headquarters, where in professionals hailing from construction industry, contractors and financers were invited at large.

 

She said Commercial Attaché of Saudi Arabia based in Islamabad, representatives of Asian Development Bank and World Bank Group also participated the session through via video link.

 

“The main purpose of inviting the best professionals in their respective field was to invite fresh ideas regarding procurement of only missing motorway link i.e. Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway to complete the high speed North-South Economic Corridor. NHA is endeavouring hard for earlier start of construction activity on this mega project. Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway will be 306km long, 14 interchanges, one major bridge on River Indus, 6 flyovers, 10 Service Areas and 12 Rest Areas will also be built along this motorway,” she said.

 

The project, Mariam Mumtaz said, was planned to be completed in 30 months at construction cost of approximately Rs190 billion with Intelligent Transport System (ITS). Construction of 69km long new 4-lane motorway from Sialkot to Kharian has already been advertised with last date of submission of bid of April 30, 2021.