ISLAMABAD, March 27: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the government is focusing on building a network of roads to improve the logistics chain. Presiding over a meeting on road projects, the prime minister said the first phase of the motorway M-1 extension, linking Lahore with Charsadda, would be completed by December, while work on the Charsada-Peshawar section was also in progress.

He was informed that completion of M-1 up till Charsadda involved construction of bridges on Rivers Indus and Kabul. It would contribute to improvement of the north-south corridor and facilitate trade, he was told.

The prime minister directed the communications ministry and the National Highway Authority to initiate work on upgrading the Karakoram Highway immediately to facilitate speedy construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam. He was told that funds for the work had been arranged. In the first phase, work on Hasan Abdal-Mansehra section will be initiated in July, while the designing of the second phase is in progress.

He was informed that a network of roads was being built with a cost of about Rs35 billion to provide better links to the Gwadar Port, which already had access up to Chaman through the Coastal Highway and the ECO Highway. An alternate route through Pangur-Basima-Sorab will be completed in three years.

The prime minister said the plan of dualisation of the Karachi-Thatha-Kotri National Highway should be included in the next year’s Public Sector Development Programme. Project will be completed in two phases.

The National Highway Authority presented a proposal for import of bitumen on low tariffs to overcome its shortage and bring stability in its price. The prime minister said the possibility to implement the proposal would be explored.