Team reaches Pindi for survey of Leh Expressway

A 15-member team of experts from Lahore has reached Rawalpindi for the survey of the Leh Expressway and flood channel project.

The17-kilometre-long signal-free Leh Expressway will cost Rs105 billion. Nearly 2,000 houses will be affected due to the construction of the expressway. The government will compensate all affectees according to the market rate falling under category-A. Until their permanent compensation, all the affectees will be given a monthly reimbursement.

The Leh Express way is very cramped in the Pahguari area and more houses will be affected at this point of the project. The embankment of Leh Expressway here will also be straightened.

Leh Expressway will be built under private-public partnership. Contractors will be provided land, where they will be able to build multipurpose commercial plazas.

Read More: Leh Expressway project’s design altered again

Federal Parliamentary Secretary Sheikh Rashid Shafiq said that the estimated cost of the Leh Expressway in 2007 was only Rs17 billion which was put in cold storage by previous governments and its cost jumped to Rs135 billion, which has been reduced to Rs105 billion by the present government.

He said that with the approval from the ECNEC, all obstacles have now been cleared and tenders will be issued in the last week of January or early February.

He said that the foundation stone of Nala Leh Expressway and Ring Road will be laid in the first week of March.

Shafique said that immediate work will be started in areas where there was no need of acquiring land.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2022.