ISLAMABAD   -  Newly-appointed chairman National Highway Authority (NHA) Capt (Retd) Muhammad Khurram Agha on Tuesday said that NHA was committed to provide better services to commuters on national highways and motorways.

Addressing E-Kachehri at NHA Head Office through NHA official Facebook Page, he answered to the questions raised by the people from all over the country. The NHA chief said that total length of NHA network was more than 13000km. “NHA is endeavouring to improve maintenance of the roads and gear up pace of work on motorways and national highways building schemes to ensure their timely completion,” he added.

Speaking about Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway, he said land acquisition work was underway, while steps were being taken for early start of work on the project. In order to facilitate the road users, he said, Balkasar-Mianwali Road was being repaired. “Sambrial-Kharian project has been tendered while design and feasibility work on Kharain-Rawalpindi project is in progress.” He said steps were being taken to start work on Barakahu Flyover project for smooth flow of traffic there.

Giving answers to the questions placed by the people, Capt (Retd) Muhammad Khurram Agha said upgradation and dualisation of Balkasar-Mianwali-Muzaffargarh Road would be undertaken on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis. NHA was also planning to control traffic congestion at Abbottabad, he added. 

NHA Chairman said that priority was being attached to road maintenance schemes in Sindh province. He expected that work on Kashmore-Bypass would be started by the end of this year with the cooperation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He said pace of maintenance work on Gharo-Keti-Bander-Thatta Road Was being geared up and work on Hala-Sakrand project would be started in one month period. 

He said that NHA had planned for dualisation of entire Indus Highway and work on the highway was in progress in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Answering a question, he said Bahrain-Kalam Road project had been re-tendered while work was being completed for award of Chitral-Shandur Road project. 

He said maintenance work on Thakot-Raikot section was also in progress. On completion of tendering process, work on Rakhi Gajj–Bewata project would also be started.

He said work on Gilgit-Skardu Road would be completed by the end of this year. He hoped that Hakla-D.I. Khan Motorway project would also be completed by July/August this year. Similarly work on Lodhran-Multan section would be undertaken in two months. “A comprehensive project is being planned to improve Lahore-Gujranwala section of N-5, while design work is being done by the consultant for Shahdara Flyover near Lahore,” he said. 

This project would also be undertaken on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. He said funds for repair and maintenance of roads would be released in one week.