The Executive Board of National Highways Authority (NHA) has approved three mega road infrastructure projects. These projects include; (a) Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway (M-6); (b) Sialkot-Kharian Motorway; and (c) Balkasar-Mianwali Road (Dualization and Rehabilitation).
The chairman NHA chaired a meeting of the Executive Board and discussed construction of PPP projects with the support of Viability Gap Funding (VGF).
Earlier the NHA Executive Board had approved the implementation of Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway (M-6) on PPP mode (Option 3A: BOT-Cross Subsidy + NHA Revenue share) by cross-subsidising the net toll revenue only of Sukkur-Multan Motorway (M-5) up to the end of debt servicing period.
The concessionaire will be responsible for operation and maintenance of Motorway M-5 during that period, except the service areas and commercialisation of ROW revenue which will remain under the control of the NHA.
NHA will take Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway project on PPP basis but will also seek government finances to bridge the funding gap. When the bids for Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway were called the NHA received very poor response with only one party showing interest to pick the project on PPP mode at an estimated cost of Rs175 billion.
The Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway project envisages construction of 306kms long, six-lane wide, access-controlled motorway.
The motorway will start from Hyderabad (end of Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway M-9) and terminate at Naro Canal (start of Sukkur-Multan Motorway M-5). The project alignment passes through Jamshoro, Tando Adam, Hala, Shahdadpur, Nawabshah, Moro, Dadu, Naushehro Feroze, Mehrabpur, Rasoolpur, Larkana, Khairpur, and Sukkur.
