P&D to review Peshawar DI Khan motorway plans

Termed as critical for the economic development of the province, the provincial planning department is expected to review plans for the proposed 360-kilometrelong Peshawar Dera Ismail Khan Motorway next week.

It is expected that the Rs258 billion project will be referred to Islamabad for procedural clearance and rationalisation.

This was disclosed on Saturday as KhyberPakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan chaired a high-level meeting in Peshawar to review the progress made on the proposed Peshawar-DI Khan motorway.

K-P Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz, Additional Chief Secretary Shakeel Qadir, Communications and Works Secretary Ijaz Ansari, Principal Secretary to CM Shahab Ali Shah and senior officials of other relevant authorities attended the meeting.

The meeting was briefed in detail about different aspects of the proposed motorway project including its salient features, estimated cost and various options for its execution.

CM Mahmood said that the proposed motorway project is of vital importance for the southern districts of the province which could usher in a new era of prosperity and development in the region.

During the meeting, the chief minister directed the relevant authorities to consider all available options for its execution and come up with the most feasible and economical option.

He said that Peshawar-DI Khan Motorway will play a key role in strengthening the provincial economy, adding that the incumbent government will go all out to execute the project.

Briefing the meeting about the proposed project it was informed that detailed engineering designs and the project concept-I (PC-I) of the project have been submitted to the Planning and Development Department for approval.

The project is expected to be cleared by the planning department next week and then sent to the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) as per the rules.

It was further informed that the total length of the motorway will be 360 kilometres, with six lanes and 19 interchanges, adding that two long tunnels, each seven-kilometre in length, will be constructed in Kohat and Karak districts.

The project is expected to be completed for an estimated cost of Rs258 billion. Previously, the provincial government has hinted that it would include the motorway as part of the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and form a core part of the western alignment of the trade conduit.

For this purpose, it had hinted at including it in the list of projects being executed in the corridor.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2020.