ISLAMABAD, July 23: The National Highway Authority (NHA) finalized the design of the Lyari Expressway (LEW) and handed it over to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) in January 2002 for public display to enable the people to get themselves acquainted with the details of the project.

In a press release on Tuesday, the NHA claimed it was not maintaining any secrecy about the project and since the onset, the NHA had been absolutely open and candid on every aspect concerning the LEW.

The press release said that meetings and discussions had been regularly held with all concerned and the project details repeatedly explained in different forums.

“The NHA has also always endeavoured to attend to each and every public objection concerning subjects relating to the Authority promptly and to the extent possible.

“The NHA is not reviewing any earlier design because only feasibility reports of the project were previously available and no design or drawings were held. As a matter of fact, no detailed design was ever attempted by any agency and the NHA finalized the current scheme after detailed fresh investigations and studies,” it said.

“The Government of Sindh and the NHA have well-defined, distinct responsibilities concerning LEW. Whereas, the GoS has to clear the entire length of the project of all encroachments and hand over the Right of Way (RoW) to NHA free of all impediments and encumbrances, the NHA has to ensure construction effort of the envisaged specifications and quality within the given time frame.

“The resettlement of the affected population concerns GoS only and this process has to obviously precede the earthwork and the road construction effort and the task is being attended to by GoS with utmost care, zeal and no comprises.

“The LEW is a 14-year-old dream of the city’s fathers and planners, the credit for transforming the dream into reality goes to the President and Chief Executive of Pakistan.

“As far as economical aspects of the project is concerned, it is economically feasible and financially viable. Extensive economic studies and analysis involving vehicle operating cost, travel time and accident potential have confirmed these vital aspects.

“The entire project cost was amortised at 15% over a period of 15 years using the capital recovery factors of 0.71 as propounded by the World Bank. The analysis resulted in Economical Internal Rate of Return factors ranging from 13% to 28% in different sections of the project.

“None of the EIRR falls below the benchmark figure of 12%. This confirms that the project is economically strong, robust and justified,” the press release concluded.