NOORIABAD (Jamshoro): Members of the Senate committee on communication have observed that the PML-N government has launched the Hyderabad-Karachi M-9 motorway project without planning, with the result that the project has defects and broken patches. They called for addressing the issues that have cropped up in the M-9, soon after its opening, on an urgent basis.

National Highways Authority (NHA) chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar submitted before the committee members that the 136km M-9 was due to be completed [in August], eight months before its stipulated time, otherwise it was to be opened in April 2018. He also disclosed that Hyderabad-Sukkur motorway has been given new alignment and claimed that M-9 is part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in a broader sense as it feeds the main CPEC route to Gwadar.

Senate committee chairman Daud Khan Achakzai of the Awami National Party (ANP) and other members Rozi Khan Kakar of the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P), Nighat Mirza of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Dr Ashok Kumar of the National Party (NP) visited M-9 on Friday in view of complaints that it was not being built in line with the Lahore-Islamabad motorway standards.

Senators question hurry to inaugurate project

Mr Achakzai chaired a meeting of the committee at the Frontier Workers Organisation (FWO) base camp in Nooriabad and also spoke to reporters during the visit.

The NHA chief briefed him about the M-9 and answered queries raised by him and other committee members.

Mr Tarar was asked why due planning was not made before launching the M-9 and why it was not built on a new alignment.

Mr Achakzai observed that service roads and fencing were not built on highway thus compromising connectivity. “What was the need for opening the incomplete M-9 ... is it the passion to fix the plaque?” asked Mr Achakzai in an obvious reference to its recent inauguration by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He wondered why diversions were not ensured.

Retired Brig Tahir Saddique Raja of the FWO told the committee that there were 12 interchanges depending on size of population that lived off the highway.

Mr Tarar said that the M-9 was being built under challenging environment as it was the busiest highway. He argued that the committee had stressed on fewer diversions, otherwise it was easier for the FWO to build service roads and diversions first. He said that if the committee wanted the NHA to complete service roads first, it could do so by suspending the ongoing work on the main project.

Filling stations

Dr Ashok Kumar raised the issue of filling stations saying that their owners had paid a hefty amount to the NHA for permission to stay off the M-9 but now they were being asked to vacate the area.

Mr Tarar told the committee that initially the policy allowed existence of filling stations at certain locations but later the Sindh High Court issued guidelines directing the NHA to protect its right of way. Mr Achakzai asked him to publicise the guidelines through newspaper advertisement and refund the money of filling stations’ owners.

About broken patches, he said that a concrete structure was yet to be built. “Since it is a temporary toll point, concrete structure has not been built yet and broken patches, which are under repair now, have resultantly appeared,” he explained.

He categorically stated that the design of M-9 was not changed.

Motorway new or old?

MQM-Pakistan Senator Nighat Mirza asked: “Why is it so that GT Road in Punjab is intact and the existing highway in Sindh is expanded in name of a ‘motorway’?”

Mr Tarar said: “Let the M-9 be completed ... it will have the same attraction people witness on the Lahore-Islamabad route.”

Mr Achakzai wrapped up the discussion on a lighter note: “You will have to expedite work on the M-9 to complete it because [political] conditions are not good.”

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017