RAHIM YAR KHAN: The theft incidents of different installations, including costly underground high-tension wires, on the Sukkur-Multan Motorway (M-5) are increasing.

Some officers of the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) have disclosed to Dawn that the number of theft incidents, especially on the Section 4 on M-5, is continuously rising and they have complained to district police, motorway police and other authorities concerned about it but to no avail.

According to sources in the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives (PD&SI), the China Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (CPECA) wrote a letter, dated Jan 13, 2022, to the secretaries of the Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Interior in Islamabad and it was forwarded to the member Infrastructure, Planning Commission, Islamabad and the special assistant to prime minister (SAPM) on the CEPC.

The letter said since the opening of the M-5, 153 theft incidents had occurred on the road, including that of goods and material worth Rs150m. It added that the incidents are not only causing loss to the exchequer but are also affecting the image of the CEPC. It requested the ministries of communication and interior to enhance the security of the Multan-Sukkur Motorway (M-5) to stop the incidents in the future.

The officers admin and security coordination in CSCEC (Peshawar-Karachi motorway project) Kashif Rauf and Ahmed Mashhad told Dawn the main reason of the theft cases was that the government was not properly managing the operations of the M-5 and the road lights were off at night and they are on only at few towers.

When the operations of M-5 were under the control of the CSCEC, the lights were always on at night and there were no incidents of theft, they said and added that the theft incidents would not occur if there would be continuous electricity supply.

They further said mostly theft cases were recorded at Rahim Yar Khan and Zahirpir interchanges and Zahirpir service area. The precious high capacity electric wires were the soft target of the gangs because of their per meter price of Rs8,000. They said they had registered many FIRs of these thefts with Zahirpir and Abadpur police stations.

The thieves would generally take fence, clumps and other material also because of lack of action in the past.

National Highway Authority (NHA) Director Public Relations Suhail Aftab told Dawn the incidents of theft of cable and fence were happening on the entire length of 392km of the motorway.

The FIRs were registered and reduction in theft had occurred but the incidents started happening again during fog. He said the lights were switched off due to disconnection/theft of the cable.

He added that the contractor had written letters to the secretary and chairman and the project office had already submitted reports to the higher authorities (secretaries) in this regard.

The NHA has floated tenders for patrolling through a contractor for safety of assets and the tender process might be completed next month, he added.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2022