Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has given a go ahead to the proposal for constructing a bridge on River Indus connecting Kandhkot with Ghotki. The project would be launched on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode and the bridge would complete by end of November. The CM was presiding over a meeting on road sector on Monday at New Sindh Secretariat with Planning and Development Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Minister for Works & Services Imdad Pitafi, Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, ACS (Dev) Mohammad Waseem, Chief Engineer Highways Prem Talreja and others present. The chief minister said that there was huge vehicular traffic pressure particularly of heavy goods transport at Kandhkot to and fro Punjab. “Therefore, there is a dire need to construct a bridge on River Indus to connect Kandhkot with Ghotki.” On this, Chief Engineer Highways Prem Talrija said that the proposed bridge would be constructed on PPP mode and cost around Rs7 billion. “Working on arranging funding under the PPP mode was under progress and the work would start soon as the funding is available.” The chief minister asked for necessary progress on working for PPP mode, adding but by the time work on the project must be stared. “I want to open it by the end of November,” the chief minister stressed.

The proposed bridge would be two kilometers long and connect Kandhkot with Ghotki. There would a 10 kilometers approaching road from Ghotki and 13 kilometers from Kandhkot.

Bijarani proposed that simply constructing a bridge on River Indus would further increase traffic pressure on Kandhkot, therefore a by-pass on Kandhkot-Thul Road may be constructed to connect it with the Indus Highway. The chief minister directed the P&D department to include the proposal of the by-pass in the project and start work on it.