KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Monday asked the federal government to hand over the administrative control of the Lyari Expressway to the provincial government so that it could be opened for heavy traffic.

At a meeting with senior leadership of the National Highway Authority (NHA), Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said that the provincial government would carry out repair and maintenance of the Lyari Expressway and open it for heavy vehicles to ease out traffic congestion from inner parts of the city.

The meeting, which was held at the CM House, took place against the backdrop of the CM’s April 24 meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in which the former had raised several financial and development issues and also requested the latter to give control of the expressway to the provincial government.

A statement issued from the CM House said that the chief minister chaired a joint meeting of the NHA and the Sindh works and services department to review the progress of various road projects being executed by the NHA.

Murad adamant on using expressway for heavy traffic

It said that the CM demanded that the federal government hand over not only the Lyari Expressway but the Karachi-Thatta and Mirpurkhas-Umerkot roads to the provincial government.

Last week, Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori and Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab had also asked the NHA and prime minister to allow heavy traffic on the Lyari Expressway.

A spokesperson for the CM House told Dawn that the NHA chairman assured the chief minister that the provincial government’s request for taking over the administrative control of the Lyari Expressway would be taken up favourably.

The NHA had off and on maintained that the Lyari Expressway was not fit for heavy traffic due to its design as it had 20 ramps, 12 bridges, around 27 while the north side of the road was built ‘solely with pillars’ at certain locations, which made it vulnerable for loaded heavy vehicles.

The expressway is also a source of revenue for the NHA as it charges toll from thousands of vehicles.

Discussing the Karachi-Thatta dual carriageway project, the CM said that the NHA handed over the Karachi-Thatta-Hyderabad section (N-5) to the Sindh government in January 2012.

In the handing over letter, the NHA said that the road would not be “de-federalised” but a no-objection certificate (NOC) being granted to the provincial government for its development on a public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.

The CM urged the NHA to de-federalise the road, as the provincial government constructed a dual carriageway at N-5 from Karachi to Thatta for Rs8.2 billion under the PPP mode and was unable to collect revenue including toll collection, fees from utility providers, right of way fees and NOC charges from petrol pumps, etc.

The NHA chairman said that it was a policy decision and it would be discussed with the communication ministry.

Indus Highway

The chief minister said that work on 130-km-long Jamshoro-Sehwan Road, which is part of the Indus Highway, was started by the NHA in 2018-19. Initially, it was an asset of the NHA but the provincial government had also contributed Rs7bn for its rehabilitation.

The CM said that the progress on the project was terribly slow. He added the straightening of curves at some locations between Jamshoro and Sehwan must be redesigned to avoid accidents.

He said that the rate of accidents per year on this particular road was higher than the whole country.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2024