GUJRAT: The local administration has ordered the government departments to eradicate hurdles to the ongoing construction work of Sambrial-Kharian motorway project for its timely completion.

The land revenue and forest departments have been tasked to expedite the evaluation of the building structures and trees along the route of the 69-kilometers long motorway, which is an extension of the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway M11.

The district evaluation committee was directed to complete the task of evaluation soon so that the owners of the land and building structures could be paid the acquisition amounts.

A senior official of the local administration told Dawn that these instructions had been passed to the concerned authorities at a joint meeting of the National Highway Authority (NHA), local administration and concerned departments, to review the progress on the project.

He said there were some issues regarding the acquisition of land at motorway’s culmination point at Kharian’s Bismillah Chowk on the main GT road, while the land required for the construction of a small interchange had already been acquired by a section of defence ministry.

However, he said, the matter was resolved between both concerned departments of federal government through the mediation by the local administration.

The construction work of the M11 extension project was started in July 2022, with two-year time stipulated for its completion.

However, the project may get delayed due to the change in the route plan after some technical issues surfaced at the river Chenab bridges’ construction site.

The site has now been changed and moved almost 5 kilometers down stream near Jalalpur Jattan.

Meanwhile, the land acquisition for the Kharian-Islamabad motorway is also underway for several months.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2024