Peshawar: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government is looking to build a major highway network to connect the seven merged tribal districts at a cost of PKR 70 billion, a news source reported.
The proposed highway is going to 750 miles long, and will connect all the ex-fata districts from Bajaur in the North to Waziristan in the South. The districts currently lack a communication network that spans through them.
The highway is also going to serve as an alternative to the CPEC route for travellers.
The proposed highway will begin from the Munda area near Lower Dir and Bajaur districts in the north of the province, and terminate in the Gul Kach area near South Waziristan district and Balochistan’s Zhob district in the south.
Originally, the project was scheduled to develop into a two-lane highway at a cost of PKR 27 billion. However, the Minister for Communication and Works Department Akbar Ayub Khan directed to build a four-lane expressway, with connections to all five major border crossings with Afghanistan.
The highway will be connected with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s northern route, N-45, in the Timergara area of Lower Dir district. On the other end, it will touch N-45, off the Western Corridor, in the Zhob district of Balochistan.
