Daily Times

The National Highway Authority (NHA) is making concerted efforts to resume four key road infrastructure projects across the country, with financing support from the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), Daily Times has learnt reliably.

These projects, previously stalled due to funding discrepancies within the authority, are now a focal point for revival to ensure timely and effective completion.

These multibillion projects are included as construction of Sukkur- Hyderabad Motorway (M-6), Kharian-Rawalpindi Motorway, Mansehra to Chilas motorway and some missing parts of Chakdara-Kalam Road (N-95).

Sources in the NHA, privy to the matter, exclusively told this correspondent, these development projects have been put on the back burner due to several factors, with financial constraints being a major one. The financial crisis has limited the resources available, leading to delays and prioritization adjustments within the organization.

They further informed that Federal Ministers for Communications, Abdul Aleem Khan, and Petroleum, Dr. Musadik Malik, are playing major roles in executing these mega projects through SFD. They are holding discussions with Saudi authorities and other relevant stakeholders to ensure their completion. “The efforts will result in significant achievements,” hoped a senior official in the authority privy to the matter.

Malik claimed in a statement that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have been closely working in recent weeks to increase bilateral trade and investment deals. As per official statements, Abdul Aleem Khan also paid official visits to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and put the said agendas to the KS authorities.

Inaugurated by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in December 2023, the project was awarded to a consortium M/s Techno-CMC-ACC. Under the project a 306 km long green-field six-lane access controlled motorway is planned to be constructed on build-operate- transfer (BOT) basis having a concession period of 25 years. As per plan, it would lead from Sukkur to Hyderabad. Originally, the NHA signed a PPP Agreement, late in 2022, with M/s TECMC (Private) Limited (a project company duly incorporated with SECP by M/s TECHNO-CMC-ACC), as concessionaire. However, despite given extended period to the company, it could not show financial close. Subsequently, the contract was cancelled after fulfillments of all coddle formalities by the authorities concerned. According to a senior official at the road authority, the contractor requested for revising rates as dollar rate spiked rapidly in given period. The authority could not consider the request as it was already facing funds discrepancies.

In a related development, last week, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and federal minister Aleem Khan, during a meeting greed to build M-6 Motorway not from Hyderabad to Sukkur but from Karachi to Sukkur via Hyderabad. It will facilitate port traffic as well. As per official statement, both have decided to explore the possibility of constructing the motorway through a public-private partnership (PPP) or a consortium to be formed by the provincial and federal governments.

Similarly, Kharian-Rawalpindi Motorway project contract was cancelled in August, 2023 by the NHA on same grounds as the contractor could not submit financial close. This Motorway is a third and final part of the Lahore-Rawalpindi Motorway, a 100km shorter motorway route between Lahore and Islamabad as existing Lahore-Islamabad Motorway (M-2) is 375 km long but the new route Lahore-Rawalpindi would be around 290 km long.

In last annual budget (2024-25), construction of a 240 km motorway from Mansehra to Chilas, was announced. It passed through Naran, Jalkhad, and Babusar. The project includes the construction of the Babusar Tunnel, aiming to establish a tourism corridor for both summer and winter seasons. The sources revealed that the project is not being exercised due to same issue in the authority.