K-P CM for opening Swat Motorway by August

Mahmood Khan directs land acquisition for phase-II

PESHAWAR: Considered to be critical for boosting tourism and commercial activities in the Malakand division, the provincial chief executive has directed to complete and open the first phase of the Swat Motorway for the public by the end of August this year.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan issued these directives while presiding over a meeting of the Communication and Works Department in Peshawar on Thursday.

Reviewing the progress made on the Swat Motorway and other road projects by the ministry, Mahmood further directed to start the process for acquiring land for the second phase of the highway project.

The chief minister was informed that phase-I of the project is near completion as the road has been completed while most of the work on building five bridges and two tunnels on it has also been completed.

Similarly, construction of the Chakdara interchange has also been completed. The meeting was briefed that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the pace of work on the project had been affected, however, phase-I of the motorway is expected to be fully reopened for traffic by the end of August.

Regarding the progress made on phase-II of the project, the meeting was briefed that the Project Concept-I (PC-I) for acquiring land has been prepared and submitted to the relevant forum for approval.

The 79-kilometre-long phase-II of the project will be constructed from Chakdara to the Fatahpur area of Swat. This segment will comprise nine interchanges and eight bridges.

The meeting was further briefed about the proposed projects for rehabilitation of roads in the rural areas of the province.

It was informed that in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), 640-kilometre of roads and 10 bridges in various districts of the province will be rehabilitated. For this purpose, a PC-I has also been prepared and submitted to the relevant forum for approval.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2020.