Punjab

Public hearing on Ring Road project on March 29

Work on Rs23 billion road project to be completed in two years

Jamil Mirza February 22, 2022

Rawalpindi commissioner asks NesPak to finalise design of 38-kilometres-long ring road from Rawat to Thalian on the Motorway. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE

RAWALPINDI:

The Punjab Environmental Protection Agency (PEPA) has decided to hold a public hearing on the Rawalpindi Ring Road on March 29.

PEPA experts will take up objections and reservations of the residents who may be affected by the route.

After the public hearing, the PEPA will decide whether or not the project is viable. After the public hearing, the Rawalpindi Development Authority will be awarded a formal contract for the project.

After the approval by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), the task of design of the project has already been assigned to the consultant NESPAK. Once the design is ready and the public hearing is complete, tenders worth Rs23 billion will be floated after PFPA public hearing.

The project will be completed in two years. The Rawalpindi Ring Road project, which was delayed due to a corruption scandal, will have a new alignment with 38 kilometres long route.

The project will start from Banth near GT Road Rawat and will culminate at Thalian. The Rawalpindi Ring Road which will be an alternative traffic route will have no economic zone under the new proposed plan.

The Rawalpindi Ring Road project, known as the missing link of Rawalpindi, has been in cold storage for the last 17 years.

The project was launched by the previous government in its last year with a loan from the Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank of China. The bank had declared the project viable and agreed to provide the loan.

The project also had the longest economic zones on both sides of the route in the previous design.

On the other hand, the business community of the twin cities and representatives of the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry have demanded setting up economic zones on both sides of the route for economic development.

Sources said that if economic zones were established along the route, then all existing industries, factories, big and small markets will be shifted there. This will help overcome environmental pollution and traffic issues in the twin cities.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2022.