Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway approved

M-6 is missing link between country's north-south motorways network

ISLAMABAD:

The Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) Board during its 20th meeting on Thursday approved the project proposals for the construction of Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway (M6) on Public Private Partnership PPP basis. PPPA Deputy Chairman Dr Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan chaired the meeting in which the board considered proposal of the successful bidder which had demanded provision of capital Viability Gap Funding (VGF) amounting to Rs9.5 billion only.

The project encompasses construction of 306-km green-field controlled access motorway at a cost of Rs307 billion as per successful bidder's proposal. The successful bidder has proposed to pay Rs408 billion guaranteed revenue share to government of Pakistan, National Highway Authority over the operations period of 22 years. The project also expects to generate Rs918 billion in the form of corporate taxes.

During the meeting it was informed that M-6 is the only missing link between country's north-south bound motorway network.

With its completion, the commuters will be able to use motorway network while travelling from the port city of Karachi to the Peshawar and vice-versa. The project is expected to generate economic benefits through promoting tourism, creating job opportunities, reducing travel time, saving costs and contributing to socio-economic development of urban and rural centres along the corridor.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2022.