RAWALPINDI: National Highway Authority (NHA) will construct an eight kilometer patch of the Ring Road project connecting China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with Motorway (M-I) while rest of the road will be constructed on private-public partnership basis.

A senior official of divisional administration told Dawn that some changes had been made in the preliminary report of 64-km-long road project and it will be presented in Lahore Ring Road Authority’s board meeting next week.

He said Commissioner retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood, who is project director, wanted to start the project as soon as possible and in this regard, he asked to complete the survey of the project site for land acquisition.

He said the government had allocated Rs4 billion for the land acquisition for the Ring Road project and it will be completed on loan worth $400 million from China’s Asian Infrastructure Development Bank.

Changes have been made in preliminary report of the 64-km-long road project

He said that the consultant would present its report by May 15 and after this, the project would be sent to Punjab Planning and Development Board for final approval so the funds could be allocated in next fiscal 2020-21.

He said the land revenue department was working to complete the survey of the area to identify the government and private land to start the land acquisition and in this regard, the government would pay for the built-up properties and agriculture land.

However, he said that the commissioner had already directed to save the agriculture land in the project as the agriculture land in Rawalpindi, which, according to him, was already reducing and for the environment safety, it was necessary to save the green areas of the Potohar region.

When contacted, Commissioner retired Capt Mohammad Mehmood said the government wanted to start the development works aimed at generate employment for the labourers and daily wage workers.

He said that some changes had been made in the project while involving National Highway Authority in the construction of main patch of the Ring Road between CPEC and M-I due to importance of the area.

He said the project would be on private-public partnership mode but the government had to submit its share which would be Rs8 to Rs9 billion in the total amount of the project apart from paying for land acquisition.

He said land would be acquired for the project by the government and it had already allocated funds for this project. He said the project would likely start in next fiscal year and all the homework would be completed before end of June.

He said the project would be completed in two years.

On the other hand, it has been decided to complete mega projects in Rawalpindi on the basis of private-public partnership. Apart from the Ring Road project, parking plazas have also been constructed with the help of private investors.

Punjab Private Public Partnership Authority has approved four parking plazas in the garrison city.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2020