QUETTA: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal Khan Alyani in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan has demanded implementation of the plan to make the Quetta-Karachi highway a dual carriageway, saying that hundreds of lives have been lost in accidents on the single carriageway.

“I would like to draw your attention to the National Highway N-25 which is advised as Regional Corporation for Development (RCD Highway) and is a total of 813 km from Karachi to Quetta and Qila Abdullah Chaman. The death rate on this highway is very high,” the chief minister said in the letter.

It said that hundreds of people were killed in traffic accidents on the highway this year. Unfortunately, the people had started calling this highway a killer road, he added.

“Our Government has committed to upgrade the National Highways across Balochistan, especially the Quetta-Karachi National Highway so that the people have full facilities for safe and comfortable travel,” the letter said.

Mr Alyani requested the prime minister to complete the highway project under the next federal Public Sector Development Programme. He hoped that the prime minister would order the departments concerned to resolve this issue on an emergency basis.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2021