KARACHI, April 17: City Nazim Mustafa Kamal has said that foundation stone of 24-km-long elevated expressway from Quaidabad to Jinnah Bridge costing US$225 million will be laid on August 8.

He said after laying foundation stone, the expressway would be completed by the end of 2008 providing an alternate route to Southern Bypass.

He was speaking at a reception hosted by former deputy speaker Sindh Assembly and Honorary Consul-General of Cameroon, Bari Jilani, in his honour here on Monday.

The nazim said that reconstruction of Shahrah-i-Quaideen bridge would start within two months for which tenders had been invited.

He referred to dug-up roads of Karachi and said that the city government had inherited these. He said that the present city government had dug only Nazimabad and Liaquatabad underpass sites while Gharibabad underpass site carried a two-year old plaque although digging work was not started on the site.

He said that work was going on round-the-clock to complete the under construction projects.

The nazim said that New M.A. Jinnah Road and Jehangir Road had been opened for traffic after completion of work. He announced that if the ongoing schemes were not completed in four months, the contractor firm would be black listed. He said that such kind of projects used to be completed in the past in 40 months. —APP