Construction on all five sections of the 306-kilometre Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway (M-6) will commence simultaneously within the current financial year, according to National Highway Authority (NHA) Chairman Muhammad Shehryar Sultan.
During a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Communications, the chairman clarified that the Rs15 billion allocated in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) is solely for supervisory and preparatory tasks, as multilateral lenders do not support disbursal on partially active projects. Final talks are underway with potential investors, and full-scale work is expected to begin by March or April 2026.
The revised cost of the M-6 stands at Rs 363.70 billion, with a construction timeline of 30 months. Sections 1 and 2 will be developed under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, with IFC as the transaction advisor and AIIB offering Viability Gap Fund (VGF) support.
Section 3 is being pursued through financing talks with the OPEC Fund and Saudi Fund for Development, while Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has pledged $475 million for Sections 4 and 5.
The committee was also updated on the Sehwan Bypass, which cannot be added to the ADB-funded CAREC Tranche-1 project due to its nearing completion. Instead, it may be included in a fresh PC-I in the next PSDP.
Additional concerns raised during the session included mismanagement during the Babusar Top incident, misuse of deputation appointments at the NHA, and inappropriate behaviour by motorway officials. The committee has called for further investigations and reports in the next session.
