BAHAWALPUR, April 26: The National Highways Authority (NHA) has approved Rs14 billion for highway projects in southern Punjab while the work has been started with an initial amount of Rs3 billion.

This was stated by NHA general manager Altaf Ahmad Chaudhry while inspecting the rehabilitation work of a bridge over the river Sutlej here on Friday.

He said the dualization of Tarinda-Bahawalpur Road up to Sutlej bridge was in progress at a cost of Rs2 billion. He said the work on its 50 kms portion was in progress while the work on its remaining portion of 40 kms would be taken in hand during the next fiscal year.

Mr Chaudhry said that four lanes Khanewal-Multan Road would be built with an amount of Rs400 million and Khanewal-Lodhran Road with an expenditure of Rs700 million.

Similarly, he said that Rs100 million would be spent on the widening of Multan-Muzzafargarh Road while the construction of Muzzafargarh By-pass had been completed at a cost of Rs700 million.

He further said that the dualization of Rajanpur-Dera Ghazi Khan Road would cost Rs360 million. A new highway bridge over river Sutlej would also be built by December, 2004, he added.