Daily Times

KARACHI: Lasbela Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Ismail Suttar demanded that the National Highway Authority (NHA) complete the dual-carriageway on Northern Bypass to ease the heavy industrial and commercial traffic travelling through that area.

In an SOS to the NHA chairman, Ismail said that there were many problems faced by the people because of the heavy industrial traffic of Karachi and Hub. While travelling to Hub from Karachi and back, due to the single carriageway on the Karachi Northern Bypass (KNB), there are frequent fatal accidents and severe traffic blockades due to following reasons; the city of Hub in Lasbela District of Balochistan is an industrial city that has a large number of industries generating a major portion of revenue collected in Balochistan. As a part of this industrial activity, hundreds of containers and other vehicles use the road on a daily basis on KNBP linking both sides.

After the commission of the Gwadar Port, the traffic of heavy vehicles has increased considerably on this road and exerting a lot of pressure on it. The revival of the ship-breaking industry has meant that the ship-breaking traffic of heavy trucks have also exerted a heavy load on this road linking the region with Karachi. Furthermore, due to the increase of economic activities – ever increasing day by day – the volume of private and public transport has also increased tremendously and with the ongoing progress on the CPEC projects, the importance of this area is increasing day by day. It is the gateway for the Gwadar Port and is in near proximity to the international ports of Karachi.

As a result of the reasons mentioned above, frequently traffic jams and blockades occur, posing great dangers of fatal accidents on KNBP starting from Shershah to Hub that may trigger severe public unrest anytime. In order to resolve this problem and to overcome the difficulties of the people as well as the business community of Lasbela and Gwadar, it has now become necessary to avoid further delay in the construction of a dual carriageway of KNBP. This dual carriageway was principally approved but unfortunately delayed for various reasons.