Rehabilitation work: Rs793m approved for 11 road projects in Pindi

Funding was sought for rehabilitation of 123 roads.

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi district administration will get Rs793 million for rehabilitation of 11 roads under the Punjab chief minister’s rural roads programme.

The district government had sent a summary to the Punjab government requesting funding for the rehabilitation of 123 roads.

Speaking at a press briefing, District Coordination Officer Sajid Zafar Dall said that as the project was announced at the end of the financial year, approval was only given for 11 roads, totalling 103km in length, which needed immediate rehabilitation. He said that the total road network in Rawalpindi was 3,400km.

“A total of 123 roads (784km) in 119 rural union councils were marked…rehabilitation would cost Rs5.425 billion,” the official said.

Talking about the condition of the roads, the DCO said that the district government could not focus on reconstruction and maintenance due to lack of funds.

“Earlier, there used to be categorization, such as roads that had to be constructed by the provincial government, roads to be constructed by district governments, and a separate category of ‘farm-to-market’ roads,” he said.



The official added that under the project, there would be no categorisation, adding that in the rural roads would be focused on in the first phase.

He said that extra funds would be issued in the next financial year for construction of new roads and rehabilitation of existing ones.

He added that three roads were five-kilometres each and would be completed within three months.

The DCO said that the remaining eight roads, each up to five kilometres long would be completed within the next six months.

The official said that the width of all approved roads under the Khadim-e-Aala Rural Roads Programme would be 12 feet and these roads would provide better communication facilities to people living in rural areas to transport produce to markets.

In reply to a question about transparency in the rural road construction projects, the DCO informed that third party validation had been incorporated to ensure quality.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 9^th, 2015.