The National Highways Authority (NHA) pressures Finance Division and Planning Commission for early release of funds to restart work on the delayed projects in Balochistan and other provinces. According to Syed Muhammad Ali Gardezi, Chairman NHA, Rs 2.5 billion has already been received by NHA but it is pressing Finance Division and Planning Commission for the rest of the funds.
Due to financial discipline, NHA has become able to continue construction work on a number of highway projects. It is giving prime importance to the highway schemes in Sindh, particularly the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9), he further added. Every possible step is being taken for timely completion of projects in Southern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He further said that Lowari Tunnel is a huge project and negotiations with the Korean construction company Sambo went well to restart work on the project.
He further added that maintenance of roads holds the same significance as the construction and NHA is striving to allocate reasonable funds for the maintenance works. Some of the other things discussed at the 216th meeting of the NHA Executive Board were related to the construction of 8 km long 6-lane road from Double Phattak to Nag Shah Chowk in Multan the PC-1 for which amounts to more than Rs 1.44 billion. Certain other matters such as Multan-Shujaabad crossing, payment to the consultant and Nowshera-Peshawar projects were also discussed in detail. Even the widening and rehabilitation of Alpuri-Besham road was also brought under discussion. Rs 1564 million have already been spent on the project to date. Several high officials of NHA attended this meeting.
