Leh Expressway project. PHOTO: FILE
Meanwhile, Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has once again been tasked to complete the project after a number of meetings of experts for almost six months.
The project would be built under private-public partnership for which some eight companies have submitted EOI while Rs26 million have been earmarked for awarding contract for preparation of transaction and technical advisory services for financial, legal and technical report. After this, the companies would take part in open bidding after qualifying the pre-qualification process.
The companies submitting EOI include NESPAK, DDMC, Usmani, MNP, Mod McDonald Pakistan, Masors Zurich, AFC, EFCP and EY.
The project had been revived by incumbent government since it halted in 2008 after approval from Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC).
As preparations began to start work on the much-anticipated Rs70 billion Leh Expressway project, the government had decided to build the road link on a ‘Build, Operate and Transfer’ (BOT) basis.
This way, the government hopes to shed around 85 per cent of the expenditure burden for the mega project.
The decision, well-placed officials disclosed, had been taken after a Chinese and two Pakistani companies expressed their keenness to build the project.
Government mulls extending Leh Expressway by 8km
The proposed plan outlines that once complete, a toll will be placed on using the expressway and the companies will be able to charge around Rs20 per vehicle for the next ten years.
After that period, the government will get full control over the expressway, including its revenues.
Last month, the government had finalised the project concept-I (PC-I) of the Leh Expressway and Prime Minister Imran Khan was expected to lay the foundation stone of the project in August.
However, the government was mulling plans to extend the expressway to be 24-kilometres-long from its initial estimate of 13 km. The government, while finalising its PC-I had decided to extend it by another six kilometres to 19 km.
The expressway will start from Sawan Adda near the Islamabad High Court and will be linked with the Ammar Shaheed Chowk through an additional six-kilometre-stretch of road.
Last month, Federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed had hinted that the government will try and build the project on BOT under the public-private partnership.
“Dialogues with the partners have begun,” he had said, adding that at least two of the companies interested in the project had suggested incorporating a monorail train track in the project, thereby setting up a mass transit system along the expressway.
He had further said that two graveyards and a mosque fall within the project’s radius and that they will be moved to an alternate location so that project construction can proceed.
Further, the government is planning to link the Agha Shahi Avenue in the federal capital with the new Katarian road. For this purpose, the government plans to build an additional six-kilometre-stretch of the road to the link with the 11-km-long express corridor between the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
‘Eviction along Leh Expressway starts in 72 hours’
A commercial area, stretching throughout the highway, is also expected to be built along the expressway to cover some of the expenses incurred in the project.
Moreover, a flood channel will be built in the middle of the Leh Nullah along with two sewerage trunks on both sides from which the city’s sewerage would empty into the Sawan River.
This sewerage water will be treated at a treatment plant to be set up at Ghorakpur down the river. Later, this treated water would be used for irrigation and the residue as fertilizer. The government has planned to build six water recycling plants as part of the Leh Expressway project.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2019.
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