Work on Rawalpindi Ring Road formally kicks off
The Frontier Works Organization (FWO) has formally started work on the Rawalpindi Ring Road projects.
The 38.3 kilometre-long ring road will have six lanes. It will start from Banth GT Road near Rawat and culminate at Thalian near Motorway. The ring road will have a total of five interchanges at Banth, Chak Bailey Khan, Adiala Road, Chakri Road, Thalian.
A total of 8,992 kanals of land has been purchased for this purpose and over Rs5.90 billion have been released for the land acquisition.
The project will cost Rs22.8 billion. Approval has also been given to set up an industrial zone around Ring Road. All the lands around it will be declared commercial and three to 10-storey buildings and plazas will also be constructed on both sides of the road. There will also be concurrent service roads along the ring road.
A total of 300,000 plants will be planted along the ring road and there will be recreational areas, benches, flowers along the road. Computerised LEDs will be installed along the ring road to allow companies to promote their publicity. The ring road project will be completed in two years.
Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar inaugurated the ring road project.
Earlier, the Rawalpindi Development Authority, the executing agency of the road project, awarded the contract to the FWO for the construction of the 38.3-kilometre-long Rawalpindi Ring Road from Rawat to Thalian.
The FWO had offered Rs300 million less bid than the estimated cost.
The Punjab government has decided to construct the Rawalpindi Ring Road under the 2017 alignment, under which, the road will be constructed from N-5 GT Road Rawat Banth Mor to Thalian Interchange (Motorway-2).
The NHA had raised the objections that more than 33,000 heavy transport vehicles would enter M2 from Rawalpindi Ring Road daily, which will not only damage its infrastructure but also cause a traffic jam at the Islamabad motorway toll plaza.
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.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 23rd, 2022.