KARACHI, Dec 9: The 533-metre-long flyover being built as part of grade-separated intersection at the Sharea Faisal and Shahrah-i-Quaideen intersection by the city government will be completed in the next 14 months.

The work on the project, costing Rs109.66 million, was inaugurated by former Sindh governor and incumbent Senate chief Mohammadmian Soomro early this year.

With the completion of the flyover, vehicular traffic moving towards the Karachi Airport and the centre of the city will flow smoothly at Sharea the Faisal-Shahrah-i-Quaideen intersection, from where, at present, over 1,44,000 vehicles pass every day.

During a visit to the flyover’s site, arranged by the city Nazim’s coordinator for the city government’s works and services department, Abid Ilyas, project director Musharraf Ahsan informed newsmen that following the construction of the flyover in February 2005, there will be no traffic signal underneath it and the traffic proceeding to and from the Karachi Airport and the city’s centre will pass through without any hindrance.

The grade-separated intersection will have two 533-metre-long ramps — one having three lanes and the other having two lanes — for the traffic proceeding to and from Shahrah-i-Quaideen via Sharea Faisal.

Updating newsmen about the progress of the project, he said that with a view to facilitating the ramps affixing works, two diversion roads on either side of Shahrah-i-Quaideen were being built to provide alternative routes to the motorists proceeding to and from the Sharea Faisal-Shahrah-i-Quaideen intersection by removing roadside nurseries. Works on both the left and the right diversion roads had been accomplished by 65 per cent, he added

About the progress made on other related works so far, he said that pile works has been completed up to 67 per cent, pile caps 64 per cent, abutment-tie beams 50 per cent, abutment pier 50 per cent, pier shaft 64 per cent, transom 38 per cent, abutment transom 50 per cent and box girder 50 per cent.

Highlighting the salient features of the flyover, he said that though the overall length of both the bridges would be 533 metres, one would have three lanes and the other will have two lanes, while the width of the three-lane bridge including its footpath and safety barrier would be 12.950 metres and the width of the two-lane bridge (including its footpath and safety barrier) would be 9.30 metres.