RAWALPINDI: Because of financial constraints, the Punjab government will have to start its Leh Expressway project on a build-operate-transfer basis by the end of the fiscal year.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Dawn the government will start the project to provide an alternate route connecting Rawalpindi and Islamabad, as well as a flood channel for the monsoon.

A board has been formed to initiate a land acquisition study, under the chairmanship of the Rawalpindi commissioner, who will brief the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) on Jan 31, he said.

Board formed to initiate land acquisition study, will brief FWO on Jan 31

“The federal and provincial government did not have funds for the project so it was decided to start working on the much needed project on a build-operate-transfer basis,” he explained, adding: “Toll tax will be imposed on road users.”

He claimed the government had no choice but to begin working on the project in this mode because the last government had emptied the accounts.

“The project would have been completed if it was not halted under past governments, and people are benefitting from the project,” he said.

Sheikh Rashid said efforts are needed to prevent flooding in the city during the monsoon, and a permanent solution for an alternate route between Rawalpindi and Islamabad is required as well.

“We are planning to bring Chinese firms so they will invest in the city, as there is enough space for commercial ventures along the nullah. Civic bodies own land along Leh Nullah and it will be used for commercial activities,” he said.

Land will be acquired where private homes have been built along Leh Nullah, he added, as there are plans to modify the previous plans.

“The length of Leh Nullah will be increased to Soan River, adjacent to the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench, where Leh Nullah discharges into Soan River,” he said.

A senior Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) official told Dawn that the Rawalpindi commissioner has been appointed project director for the Leh Expressway, and the RDA will be the executing agency.

He said the commissioner has called the Jan 31 meeting for a report on initial estimates for land acquisition and the total area to be procured.

After the 2001 floods in Leh Nullah, he said, the City District Government Rawalpindi then led by former distrct nazim Raja Tariq Mehboob Kiani procured land along Leh Nullah, but that land had been encroached on in the last 18 years.

He said it would be challenging for the government to retrieve encroached upon land along Leh Nullah, and the government should start new land procurement to avoid any further controversy.

Land will be procured by the government, the official said, while construction will begin on a build-operate-transfer basis. He said the commissioner being appointed project director would be land procurement easier.

Another RDA official said the provincial government has asked the civic body to carry out a new feasibility study for the project from Kattarian Bridge to Soan River, as it wanted to expand the road to Peshawar Mor, parallel to 9th Avenue.

He said the cost of construction will increase, and toll tax will be imposed for more than 30 years.

“Like the motorway, the road will be built and after operating, the organisation will hand it over to the Punjab government,” he said.

The aforementioned project involves the construction of a 22-kilometre signal-free expressway on either side of Leh Nullah from Rawalpindi to Islamabad, with interchanges at Katarian Bridge, Moti Mahal and Ammar Chowk, eight flyovers and 10 bridges. The project will ease traffic congestion on Benazir Bhutto Road and Airport Road.

The expressway was launched in March 2007 by the Musharraf government. FWO was awarded the contract and began working, and the project was to be completed in two years. It was shelved during the 2008 general election, and afterwards the PML-N government feared that completing the expressway would benefit Sheikh Rashid, the architect of the project.

The project could not be reinitiated even though the PPP federal and PML-N provincial governments allocated funds from 2008 to 2013.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2019