GUJRAT: The Kharian-Sambrial motorway, an extension of Lahore-Sialkot motorway M-11, may face delay by at least one year as the National Highways Authority (NHA) is yet to acquire land in Gujrat and Sambrial tehsils.

The delay is caused due to the change in the realignment of the route, following the irrigation department’s objection to the site of the bridges over the Chenab.

The project had to be completed within two years after its launch in July 2022. At least 16 new villages have been added by excluding the previously marked villages after the realignment in Gujrat and the required land has also been identified but so far the acquisition process is having price assessment by the land revenue department and the NHA, said an official privy to the process. He added that the land revenue department had been tasked to work 24/7 to complete the price assessment.

The civil work on 35km long portion of the motorway is yet to be launched in Sambrial and Gujrat tehsils but the construction on remaining 34km in Kharian tehsil is being done expeditiously, which might be completed within the next couple of months, said an NHA official.

He said as soon as the matter of price assessment for the land acquisition in Gujrat tehsil would be resolved, the civil work in Gujrat and Sambrial tehsils would be launched as efforts were being made to complete the project by the year end.

Official sources said that the realignment had been made to save the bridges of the motorway as well as the runways of Sialkot airport from the floods as earlier the bridges had to be built close to the Marala headworks but now they will be built almost 5m downstream from the previous location.

Similarly, the motorway will now pass between Jalalpur Jattan and Gujrat city whereas previously, it had to pass between Jalalpur Jattan and Tanda towns.

Five interchanges and two rest areas along the route will be built within the limits of Gujrat district.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2024