Linking Gwadar : FWO pulls off rare road building feat

ISPR says pace of work is 1.5km per day on international standards.

RAWALPINDI: The Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), the construction arm of Pakistan Army, has completed 502 kilometres of the 870 kilometre road network project for linking Gwadar Port with the rest of the country.

“On the directives of the Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, FWO took the challenge to connect Gwadar Port with the rest of the country by road network, which later became part of the western alignment of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),” ISPR, the media wing of the armed services, said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the statement the project encompasses construction of 870 kilometres of road. Deployment was approved in February 2014 and FWO units were mobilised on sites in March 2014.

Presently 11 units were employed on various road projects in Balochistan. To date 502 kilometres of road has been completed in less than one-and-a-half year.

The average progress of work is approximately 1.5 kilometres per day on international standards which is unprecedented in field of road construction throughout the world.

FWO has faced armed attacks from insurgents many times. “Six military personnel and 10 civilian employees of FWO have been martyred and 29 severely injured in 136 security-related incidents,” the statement said.

Construction of these roads will link Gawadar Port with upcountry by multiple routes including Chaman through N-25, Dera Ismail Khan through N-50 and Indus Highway N-55.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2015.