Rs112b allocated for mega development projects: PM

Announces Hazara motorway project will be completed by the end of next year

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday that the government is paying special attention to energy and development projects in the country, which have been allocated Rs112 billion, Express News reported.

“We have allocated Rs112 billion for mega development projects in the country,” Nawaz Sharif said during his visit to Haripur to review work on the Hazara motorway project.

Read: Balochistan's development is top priority: Nawaz

The Hazara motorway project will be completed by the end of next year as per special instructions issued by the prime minister. The premier laid down the foundation stone of the project in November last year.

Further, the prime minister announced a 6-lane motorway project from Peshawar to Karachi and a 4-lane motorway project from Mansehra to Thakot.

“We will take these motorways to the Chinese border which is also a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC),” he said, while addressing the media.

“Building motorways will bring prosperity to the whole region in general and Gilgit-Baltistan in particular,” the prime minister claimed. “A road is the first step towards economic progress.”

Furthermore, he said the government has already started to construct a web of roads in Balochistan, which, he claimed, would bring revolutionary changes in the country.

Read: Peshawar-Karachi motorway under CPEC to be completed by 2017: PM

“We will even spread the motorways from Balochistan to Central Asian countries in near future,” he added.

Meanwhile, the premier also vowed to finish the much delayed Lowari Tunnel within two years and instructed officials to increase the pace of work.

Earlier upon his arrival, officials of the National Highway Authority (NHA) briefed the prime minister on the progress made in the Hazara motorway project.