A vital part of the western route of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), construction of Rehmani Khel to Kot Belian section, is approved to award by National Highway Authority (NHA) at a cost of Rs 9.232 billion.
The approval was granted in a meeting of the NHA executive board headed by the authority’s Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar.
The approved project forms an important section of Hakla-DI Khan Motorway and was awarded to the lowest evaluated bidder, a joint venture (JV) of M/s SKB and M/s KNK at their evaluated bid price of Rs 9.232 billion.
Hakla-DI Khan Motorway (CPEC) is 285 kilometres long and is divided into five packages with estimated cost of Rs 145.5 billion, including Rs 20 billion for land acquisition and shifting of utilities. The project was divided into five smaller sections so that work could be completed according to the given timeframe.
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, second at River Indus and third at River Koram. The proposed motorway will have 100m wide right of way (ROW) to convert the proposed four-lane facility to six lanes in future.
Work on the package-IV (Tarap-Pindi Gheb), package-III (Mainwali-Tarap) and package-I (Yarik (DIK)-Rehmani Khel) has been awarded to contractors and machinery has been mobilised on sites. The construction work has already been started on the three packages simultaneously and would be completed in two years after the starting date. Package-I (Yarik-Rehmani Khel-55 kilometres) has been awarded to M/s NLC at bid amount of Rs 13.257 billion, package-III (Mianwali-Tarap, 60 kilometres) to M/s FWO at bid amount of Rs 20.629 billion and package-IV (Tarap-Pindi Gheb, 50 kilometres) to M/s Limak-ZKB JV at Rs 21.386 billion.
The chairman NHA informed the meeting that timely completion of the western route of CPEC is among top priorities. He said that work on the remaining sections of the route is already in progress and hoped that 285-km long motorway would be completed by the end of 2018.
The completion of the project would not only reduce the distance between Islamabad and Balochistan province to a great extent but would also make the people of less-developed areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan part of the massive development activity, leading to significant improvement in their socio-economic condition.
