Daily Times

The government has released only Rs 500 million for Burhan-Havelian section of Hazara Motorway under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2017-18 out of a total allocation of Rs 3 billion for the current fiscal year.

The current fiscal year is ending in a week time and the government has to release Rs 2.5 billion more for the project. According to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the total project allocation under federal PSDP was at around Rs 4.5 billion while the remaining cost worth Rs 25.9 billion was to come from foreign sources.

The 59-kilometer project, which will connect northern areas with major seaports in the country’s South, was earlier to be completed by May 2018 at a cost of Rs 30.5 billion but could not be completed on time due to technical issues. It is now expected to be completed by end of 2018. The 47-kilometer-long Burhan-Shah Maqsood section is already completed and is functional while the remaining 12-km part from Shah Maqsood to Havelian is yet to be completed.

The Hazara Motorway is an important segment of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and is the second project that attained successful completion in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the M-1 motorway.

Meanwhile, officials sources said that work on Havelian-Thakot Motorway, another important section of the CPEC, was going on at a rapid pace. The project has been divided into three packages: Havelian-Abbottabad, Abbottabad-Mansehra, and Mansehra-Thakot.

The work on Havelian-Thakot section began in 2017 and was scheduled to be completed by February 2020. While the Havelian-Abbotabad-Mansehra (39 km) section is scheduled to be completed by November 2018. Work on Khunjerab-Raikot 335-km-long section has already been completed, while work on 144-km Raikot-Thakot section was in progress at a rapid pace.

The Hazara Motorway from Hakla (M-1) to Shah Maqsood Interchange has already been completed and opened. The Hazara Motorway comprises 30 bridges and flyovers, 31 underpasses and 157 box culverts. The Hazara Motorway will benefit 0.6 million population of Hattar Industrial Area, Haripur, Havelian, Abbottabad and northern areas. About 28,500 vehicles will commute on Hazara Motorway with substantial reduction in travel time.

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.