Chief minister approves 6-km-long elevated expressway

Project to address traffic problems for vehicles entering and exiting Lahore

LAHORE: The construction of six-kilometre Elevated Expressway from the Ravi River Bridge to Kala Shah Kaku has been approved.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved the project in a meeting held at the CM House on Saturday.

The road is an intersection for traffic coming from Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Shahdra Town towards Lahore. The road between Shahdra Morr to Barkat Town is a bottleneck for traffic coming in and out of the city. It is the only entrance into Lahore for traffic coming from Islamabad and Gujranwala via Grand Trunk Road (GT Road).

Shehbaz said six lanes are for general traffic, whereas two lanes are for the metro buses. The elevated expressway would have a 4.5 km long bridge and 1.5 km would be on the ground level, he added.

“Modern infrastructure will help grow our country’s economy and promote industrial and trade activities,” he said, adding that the Punjab government has spent billions of rupees on infrastructure projects. The elevated expressway would address traffic problems for vehicles coming in and out of Lahore, he said. He directed officials of the Parks and Horticulture Society to beautify the elevated expressway and prepare a plan for this purpose.

“The completion of the project will provide much-needed relief to commuters at one of the main gateways to Lahore,” he said.

The provincial government was criticised for ignoring northern Lahore in development schemes. This would be the third biggest projects for the residents of northern Lahore, after the Metro Bus and River Ravi Bridge projects.

The government has also granted approval for extending Metro bus route from Shahdara Morr to Rancha Town. The extension of around four-kilometre of Metro Bus route would provide resident of Sheikhpura an easy access into Lahore.

The chief minister also directed authorities to prepare a construction plan for another bridge over the River Ravi. Recently, the government inaugurated the metro bus’s only bridge over River Ravi. The aim was to ease the load on the old connecting bridge, but traffic issues persisted.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2017.