GUJRAT: The much-awaited mega project of Shahbazpur bridge over Chenab river connecting Gujrat with Sailkot international airport and Sialkot-Lahore motorway (M11), has finally been completed after construction of an eight-kilometre long road on Sialkot side of the bridge.

The route has now become formally functional for the motorists who have started travelling towards Sialkot and Lahore from Gujrat side for the last more than a week. However, final touches are being given to the project through construction of shoulders on both sides of the newly- built road on Sialkot side as 11-kilometre long road and a bridge over stormwater channel on Gujrat side had already been completed.

In the absence of yellow and white lanes as well as the cat’s eyes along the road shoulders, the driving on this road can be dangerous for the motorists as drivers usually drive fast on this newly-constructed road which has resulted in several road accidents during the last one week or so, said Osama Iqbal who daily commutes to Sambrial tehsil of Sialkot from a village of Gujrat by his car.

He said his vehicle had also been hit by a speeding car whereas several other incidents had also been reported in the dangerous zone.

A resident of Jalalpur Jattan Town that close to the Shahbazpur bridge said the vehicle of his father had fallen into a roadside ditch on Friday evening due to dense fog. He told Dawn that had there been light installed along the route or at least there were cat’s eyes and yellow lanes on the road, the risk to travel on the road could be minimised.

He demanded the provision of safety measures along the route such as lights, speed checking by the traffic police as well as patrolling of police on both sides of the bridge particularly after evening to make the travel smooth on the route. However, Gujrat police have already established a small picket at the start of bridge by putting barriers whereas Punjab patrol police also have its formal check post around 10 kilometres into the Sialkot side near Bangla Chowk from the bridge but patrolling mechanism has not yet been activated within 20 kilometres of both sides of bridge.

Though the project of Shahbazpur bridge had been approved by the PML-Q’s Punjab government in 2006-07, the PML-N government had changed its location and site plan due to some technical issues.

Later, the then Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had allocated a huge sum of Rs 5.2 billion for the project in 2015-16 when the execution of project was started by the contractor firm National Logistic Cell (NLC) that had completed 90pc of the work until April 2018 however the completion of project was delayed for at least 32 months due to paucity of funds.

The Punjab government released Rs272.8 million in the budget of current fiscal year after which the project is now being given final touches.

Official sources said Chief Minister Usman Buzdar is likely to inaugurate the project within the current month.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2021