Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: China will provide 90 percent of the financial assistance for the 393-kilometre Sukkur-Multan Motorway, whereas remaining cost of the project will come from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

An official of the National Highway Authority Thursday said that physical work on the Sukkur-Multan Motorway costing Rs 294 billion had been started.

It is also a part of eastern route under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which will be completed within three years costing Rs 294 billion, the official said.

This motorway passing through Multan-Jalalpur Peerwala Ahmedpur East, Ubaro, Panno Aqil will terminate at Sukkur. Total 54 bridges will be constructed, including one major bridge on Sutlej, he added.

The official further said Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9), which connects Karachi to Hyderabad, is going to be 136-kilometre long with 16 exits and is going to cost about Rs 24 billion.

He said the M-9 would later be linked to the Karachi-Lahore and Karachi-Gwadar motorways to constitute the longest tract in the motorway network.

The National Highway Authority (NHA), the official said, is taking all possible measures to ensure the timely completion of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“The CPEC project comprises modern highway and railway transportation system linking Kashgar in West China to Khunjerab in the north and onwards to Karachi and Gwadar in the south of Pakistan through multiple routes,” he added.

He said that a number of sections of this mega project had been completed and remaining sections were under construction. He said that the 784-kilometer segment from Khunjerab to Burhan consists of Karakoram Highway (KKH), out of which 335 kilometre from Khunjerab to Raikot had already been upgraded.

The official said that the remaining part from Raikot to Islamabad was divided into three sub sections of Raikot-Thakot, Thakot-Havelian and Havelian-Burhan.

He said the construction work on 120-kilometre Thakot-Havelian section of the road has started after its ground breaking by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently. He said that the work on 59-kilometre Burhan-Havelian section also known as Hazara Motorway was going smoothly and it would be completed by end of 2017 at a cost of Rs 34 billion.

The official said that work on 288km section of the western corridor from Burhan to Dera Ismail Khan would start within weeks. He said the project had been divided into five smaller sections so that work could be completed according to the given time frame. He said that Rs 13 billion PC-1 for acquiring the land required for the project had been approved.

The project envisages construction of 285km four-lane expressway from Hakla on M-1 to DI Khan near Yarik on N-55 as part of western route of the CPEC, he said.

The proposed motorway will be built as a controlled access facility and includes provision of 11 interchanges, 19 flyovers, 15 bridges, 74 underpasses, 259 culverts, and three major bridges; one at River Sawan, one at River Indus and third at River Koram, he added.

The proposed expressway will have 100m wide right of way (ROW) to convert the proposed four lane facility to six lanes in future, the official said.