RAWALPINDI: A team from the Communication and Works Department will arrive here from Lahore on Sunday to conduct a survey for the signal-free corridor to be established from Kutchery Chowk to Pirwadhai Mor at a cost of Rs8.2 billion.

The foundation stone of the corridor was laid by Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Friday night, five days before the general elections.

A senior official of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) told Dawn that the caretaker chief minister laid the foundation stone but the project was yet to get final approval from the planning and development department.

He said the civic body had made initial plan and estimated the cost of the project to be Rs8.2 billion. The corridor will have a total length of 7.6 kilometres.

“Three underpasses will be constructed on The Mall and Peshawar Road at Pearl Continental Hotel Chowk, General Post Office Chowk and Qasim Market in front of Race Course while two protected U-turns will be built at Chairing Cross Square and Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC),” he added.

He said the project was in the initial phase and will likely to be started after general elections. He said PC-I will be sent to planning department after the survey report of Communication and Works Department.

“Earlier, the RDA planned to make a signal-free road from Koral Chowk to the Motorway Chowk via Peshawar Road but later changed the plan and now has selected Kutchery Chowk as the starting point,” he said. He said the RDA had conducted a survey of the area and counted the traffic movement on the road and finalised the initial plan.

The travel time on Peshawar Road from Kutchery and Nur Khan Airbase is more than one hour and the government decided to reduce it to 20 minutes, he added. He said that the cantonment authorities wanted to run public transport on the route from Saddar to the motorway and Islamabad International Airport after completing the corridor project.

RDA Director General Saif Anwar was not available to comment. However, another RDA official requesting not to be named said the signal-free corridor was changed from Kutchery Chowk to Pirwadhai Mor as the National Highway Authority was already working to construct an underpass on Golra Mor and the corridor will be connected to it.

He said under the earlier plan, Ammar Chowk as the starting point of the corridor but it was changed and the survey of the area was being carried out.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2024