Bahria Town offers to build Leh Expressway
Traders say solution to traffic congestion on Murree Road is to build alternate roads like the Leh Expressway. PHOTO: AGHA MEHROZ/EXPRESS
The real estate giant, Bahria Town, has offered to start work on the much delayed and 18-kilometre-long signal-free Leh Expressway and a flood channel around Nullah Leh.
The Bahria Town has floated the offer to the Rawalpindi Development Board (RDA) after the government failed to start work on the vital project for too long.
The cost of the long-pending project has surged to Rs83 billion , excluding the estimated sum of Rs15 billion, which will be needed for the land acquisition.
The Leh Expressway will stretch from Ammar Shaheed Chowk in Rawalpindi to Islamabad Expressway through IJP Principal Road. Leh Expressway is an important project as it will help put an end to traffic congestion in the garrison city. The flood channel will also resolve the issue of flooding in the city during the monsoon.
Official sources said that the RDA has forwarded the offer of Bahria Town Group to the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Authority for final approval.
Read Signal-free Leh Expressway project to start soon
Under the offer, the real estate giant will carry commercial constructions along the Leh Expressway and bear the total cost of Rs83 billion.
The Punjab government will only pay for the land acquisition, amounting to Rs15 billion.
RDA sources told The Express Tribune that the PPP Authority will give a final nod to the Bahria Town offer for the construction of the project under public-private partnership.
Under the revised project, the depth of Nullah Leh will be increased by two feet, which will prevent flooding.
Sources also said that decision regarding commencing work on the Leh Expressway project either from Sawan bridge or Ammar Shaheed Chowk will be taken after a survey once the Bahria Town proposal was approved.
The proposal to transfer sewage to a water treatment plant in Gorakhpur has already been excluded from the project despite the RDA having a 5,000-kanal of land at the site.
Read more Leh Expressway project inches closer to approval
The setting up of the sewerage treatment plant would have provided water for irrigation besides providing
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid on Saturday said that work on the long-awaited Leh Expressway project will kick off soon as all preparations were being finalised.
He said the Punjab government had allocated Rs55 billion for the project in the financial year 2021-22.
Rashid said the 18-km-long expressway project would start from Ammar Chowk and culminate at Pindora with high-rise buildings on both sides of the expressway.
He said that the project would be completed under the public-private partnership.
The interior minister said that the Leh Expressway would be a game-changer project for the city and would help ease traffic congestion.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 10th, 2021.