LAHORE: The Punjab government has failed to start work on the Rs10 billion Lahore Ring Road’s Southern Loop-3 (SL-3) despite the inauguration of the project by Prime Minister Imran Khan more than one year ago.

The Lahore Ring Road Authority (LRRA) and the National Logistics Cell (NLC) had signed the agreement on June 14, 2020. The work on the Rs10bn project had to be started in a week but it had not taken off even after one year.

A source told Dawn the LRRA and other contractors related to the project were jittery after the NAB action in the Rawalpindi Ring Road Project. He said the officials were not willing to take any risk even after resolving land-related issues and recovery of land from a property tycoon.

“The completion of the project will bring ease to hundreds of thousands of motorists to access the hurdle-free route,” he said. He said unfortunately the government, despite the vacation of the stay order recently, seemed helpless to start work on the project.

The Southern Loop will start from Raiwind Road (Adda Plot) and connect Multan Road at Maraka point. The construction of 8-km SL3 with two interchanges, six lanes dual carriageway and three subways was scheduled to be completed within one year.

The SL3 will be constructed under the public-private partnership and on a build, operate and transfer basis. Around 3,098 kanals worth Rs4.586bn have already been acquired. The project cost will be recovered by the contractors in the form of collecting toll from motorists. Construction cost of SL3 is Rs10bn and it will be recovered within a period of 25 years as approved by the Policy and Monitoring Board.

LRRA Chairman Muhammad Usman told Dawn that a committee had been constituted to resolve the issues related to the SL-3. He said work on the project would start soon.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2021