Islamabad: The Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) will soon have more lanes, a news source quoted Federal Minister for Communication Murad Saeed as saying. He also revealed that the motorway’s multiple toll plazas will be replaced with a single tax-collection facility.
The minister said that the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway
suffered from traffic burden due to axle load and shortage of lanes. He added
that they had begun correspondence with the Sindh government to increase the
number of lanes.
According to the minister, the project was completed on a Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis. Under this initiative, the contracting company had awarded the construction of a new toll plaza for the toll collection for 20 years.
Saeed revealed that his team was currently working to
improve the situation at M-9. In this regard, the team was preparing a report
for identifying the flaws in the previous agreement of the project, he added.
He said that the report would include the solutions to the said problems, and
presented to the parliament soon.
Saeed further said that the N-45 (Chakdara-Chitral Road) was a single carriageway and there was no proposal for its dualisation as of now. However, he added, that the department concerned was considering the widening and improvement of the 130-kilometre road with the help of the Korean Exim Bank.
Meanwhile, the minister told the parliament that they had
declared the Gilgit to Chitral Road (via Shandur) as an alternative
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route.
