Islamabad Ring Road project put on hold

50-kilometre-long road scheme aims to do away with entry of heavy vehicles into capital city

RAWALPINDI:

Authorities have put on hold the much-touted Islamabad Ring Road project for the next financial year, sources said.

“It has been decided not to allocate funds for the Islamabad Ring Road in the new Capital Development Authority (CDA) budget supposed to be sent to the federal government,” an official of the civic agency said whishing not to be quoted.

The Islamabad and Rawalpindi ring roads were the former government's mega projects. The two ring roads were to connect Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The Islamabad Ring Road is supposed to be started from Sangjani Interchange and culminate at the starting point of Rawalpindi Ring Road.

The 50-kilometre-long Islamabad Ring Road will pass through Shah Allah Ditta, Margalla Hills, Bhara Kahu, F-Series sectors, Charah and Kllar Syeddan. The federal government was supposed to bear all expenses through the CDA. The Islamabad Ring Road was to be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs70 billion.

The Islamabad Ring Road was also named as Islamabad inter-city road. Traffic coming from Hazara and Gilgit-Baltistan was also supposed to link the ring road directly from the Hazara side.

With the construction of the ring road, the entry of all heavy-duty vehicles in Islamabad was to be permanently banned.

All heavy traffic coming from outside cities and traffic going to other cities had to use the ring road without entering the garrison city.

However, now both the federal government and the CDA have shown their inability to allocate funds for its construction.

MNA Asad Umar and Ali Nawaz Awan had also agreed to provide funds for the project from the MNAs’ fund. Former federal minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan while talking to The Express Tribune said that both the ring roads are a game-changer and state of the art projects for the twin cities.

Immediate work will be started on these two projects with the return of the PTI to power after the elections. By that time, the estimated cost of both these projects is also likely to increase, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2022.