RAWALPINDI: For a project that could not be started in almost two decades, the Leh Nullah Expressway and Flood Channel project will undergo another feasibility study for Rs43 million.

The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) sought applications for a consultant by March 28, and this would be its third study since 2007. In this fiscal year 2024-25, the Punjab government allocated Rs43 million for the study to revive the mega project.

A senior official told Dawn that the process for the feasibility study and expressions of interest would be completed by March 28. He said that the RDA would select the consultant after receiving documents from the aspiring firms.

The official said that the consultant would be given three months for the feasibility study, after which the administration would award the contract for the construction of roads on both sides of Leh Nullah.

Project has gone through two feasibility studies since its inception in 2007

He said the consultant would be asked to conduct a study for the construction of roads on both sides of Leh from Jhelum Road near the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench to I.J. Principal Road at Kattarian Bridge and the construction of a trunk sewer from Moti Mahal to Gorakhpur.

He said more than 5500 kanal in Gorakhpur was available for a sewerage treatment plant to treat Leh’s water for agricultural purposes. He said that the Parks and Horticultural Authority (PHA) had constructed a temporary nursery at the site, but the site was allocated for the treatment plant funded by the Asian Development Bank.

The Leh expressway was launched in March 2007 and it was inaugurated by military dictator Pervez Musharraf. The total cost of the project was Rs20 billion, and it was decided that 50 per of the funds would be provided by the federal government and the remaining amount would be paid by the Punjab government.

According to the approved plan of 2007, the signal-free road on both sides of Leh would be 22 kilometres long, with interchanges at the Kattarian Bridge, Moti Mahal, and Ammar Chowk. Eight flyovers and ten bridges will be constructed on the expressway and a service road will be constructed for local traffic. The project plans to ease traffic congestion on Murree Road and Airport Road.

The Frontier Works Organisation was awarded the contract, and it started the work at the site to complete it in two years. However, the work stopped after the 2008 elections.

In 2019, the PTI government ordered another feasibility study, which planned to complete this project on the basis of the public-private partnership. A consultant was hired on December 7, 2019, for the preparation of the project proposal. The estimated cost of the project was Rs55 billion.

“The project eventually emerged as a non-viable project on the basis of the PPP mode owing to insufficient revenue generation in compensation with the high capital cost. And in 2023, the nature of the project changed from the PPP mode to the government-funded …,” he added. He said roads would be constructed on both sides of the nullah while the focus would be on mitigating the impacts of floods.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2025