Rehmani Khel-Kot Belian: Award of work okayed for motorway section

NHA approves giving contract to joint venture at bid price of Rs9.2b

ISLAMABAD: The executive board of the National Highway Authority (NHA) on Tuesday approved 'award of work' to the lowest bidder for the Rehmani Khel to Kot Belian section of the Hakla-D I Khan motorway on the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The project forms an important section of the Hakla-DI Khan Motorway. It was awarded to SKB and KNK -- a joint venture-- at their evaluated bid price of Rs9.232 billion. This section is an important part of Hakla-D I Khan motorway which will connect M-1 (Peshawar to Islamabad) with Gwadar Port, said an official while talking to The Express Tribune.



The approval was given in a meeting held under the chairmanship of NHA Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar.

“The completion of the project would not only reduce the distance between Islamabad and Balochistan province but also make the people of less-developed areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan part of the massive development activity,” said Tarar told the participants of the meeting.

NHA spokesperson Kashif Zaman said that the project is expected to be completed by 2018.



While sharing details of the projects under the western route, he said that 193km Gwadar to Khushab Road was completed in January last year, 454km Khushab to Saryab Road was also completed last year in December, Saryab Road to Quetta was already completed. He added that work on the 81km Zhob to Mughalkot Road also began last year and is expected to be completed in 2018.

Meanwhile, Chairman NHA also informed the meeting that timely completion of the western route of CPEC was among the top priorities of the authority. He said that work on the remaining sections of the route was already in progress and hoped that the 285km long motorway would be completed by the end of 2018.