Centre, Sindh agree on Karachi-Sukkur M6

KARACHI:

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Federal Minister of Communication Aleem Khan on Thursday agreed to build the M6 Motorway not from Hyderabad to Sukkur but from Karachi to Sukkur via Hyderabad. They also agreed to explore the possibility of building the motorway through a public-private partnership (PPP) or through a consortium to be formed by the Sindh and federal governments.

The agreement came in a meeting at the CM House which was also attended by Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah, CM's Secretary Raheem Shaikh, Secretary Works Mohammad Ali Shaikh, Federal Communication Secretary Ali Sher Mehsud, NHA Chairman Shaharyar Sultan, Director Hassan Shah, Member NHA Sindh Zone Parkash Lehano and Member West Zone Basharat.

The Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway project envisages the construction of a 306-kilometre-long, six-lane, access-controlled motorway. The motorway is proposed as a high-speed toll road facility for efficient and safe transportation, which will start from Hyderabad and end at Naro Canal.

It was pointed out that a PPP agreement for M6 construction was signed with a private consortium in December 2022 but due to some reason work could not be started and the partnership was cancelled. The federal minister proposed that the M6 may be started from Karachi to Sukkur via Hyderabad instead of Hyderabad to Sukkur to facilitate the port traffic too. The CM agreed to the proposal and discussed the modality of its construction.

Another proposal was also discussed under which the federal and provincial governments may form a consortium to construct M6 on equal partnership. To this, CM Shah said that his team would study the proposal and get back to the federal ministry.

At the meeting, the chief minister also urged the federal minister to approve handover of the Lyari Expressway so that it could be opened for heavy traffic. He said that the Sindh government would upgrade the Lyari Expressway within six months before opening it to heavy traffic.