Government floats tender for ‘Tourism Expressway’

123km-long road to cost Rs4b, will be new ‘tourism corridor’ between northern areas

RAWALPINDI:

The government of Punjab has floated a tender for a 123km long tourism expressway, with the project expected to cost more than Rs4 billion and attain completion within 30 months.

The expressway will stretch from Pindori Chowk in Kalar Syedan, enabling travellers to journey all the way to Lower Topa in Murree.

Upon completion, the road is set to be touted as the new ‘tourism corridor’ between Azad Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), and Galiyat. Five major roads from Azad Kashmir, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, GB and other cities will be connected to the expressway. The work order for the project is slated to be issued in the first week of November.

MNA Sadaqat Ali Abbasi, who proposed the project, told The Express Tribune that the construction of the tourism expressway will create new employment opportunities in four mountainous tehsils of the Rawalpindi district.

Read Work on Tourism Expressway to start soon

He added that all properties along the road will be commercialised, and that the realisation of the project will make the construction of four-to-eight storeys high earthquake-proof commercial plazas possible.

The lawmaker said educational institutions, industrial zones, modern parks, and picnic points will also be built along the highway.

Abbasi shared that the road will be the longest one in the Potohar region, and the government is planning to plant 0.25 million saplings of fruit-bearing and flowering trees along the entire route.

Moreover, automated signals and LEDs for advertisement will also feature throughout the expressway.

The MNA expressed hope that installation of symbolic monuments along the road would help promote and depict the collective cultures of Potohar and Kohsar in all their glory.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2021.