PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has formally agreed to arrange bridge finance of Rs4 billion for the early completion of the long delayed Northern Bypass on schedule during the current fiscal.

The decision was made in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sohail Afridi here on Wednesday.

The participants included chairperson of the Prime Minister Inspection Team retired brigadier Muzaffar Ali Ranjha, adviser to the chief minister on finance Muzzammil Aslam, Peshawar commissioner Riaz Khan Mehsud and other relevant officials.

Over 30km Northern Bypass, which has been planned to complete the Ring Road around the provincial capital, has missed several deadlines due to paltry releases from the Federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and some other issues in the last 17 years, according to officials.

CM promises ‘every possible support’ for timely completion of Peshawar project

They said that in Wednesday’s meeting, the KP government expressed its readiness to arrange Rs4 billion bridge financing for the project through bank guarantees. It also decided to manage Rs200 million funds from its own resources for the construction of two culverts on the project site at the cost of Rs100 million apiece.

The officials said that member National Highway Authority informed the meeting that the project now needed Rs8 billion for completion due to cost escalation.

However, the KP insisted that the federal government dripping fund releases were responsible for prolonging construction of a 30km for up to two decades; so the centre should foot the bill for cost escalation.

The officials said that both sides agreed to hold another meeting at the start of the next week to finalise the arrangements of the funding, which would be attended by the chairperson of the PM Inspection Team, adviser to the chief minister on finance, Peshawar’s commissioner and NHA officials.

Mr Afridi expressed concerns over the prolonged delay in the completion of the key project and blamed it on funding issues on part of the Centre.

“Since the Northern Bypass is a project of vital importance for the people of Peshawar, our government will extend every possible support for its timely completion,” he said.

He said that besides facilitating commuters, this road will also boost trade activities. NHA officials at this occasion said that the project would be completed by June 2026.

The project, which is currently in its 17th year of execution, has seen its cost balloon from Rs3 billion to Rs27 billion due to small releases from the federal government.

The official documents available with Dawn show that the project launched in November 2010 has seen three PC-I revisions and missed several deadlines. Package I of the project, measuring 7.6km from motorway interchange to Charsadda Road, was originally scheduled to be completed in 2011. However, the deadline was later revised to 2014.

Over 12km Package II runs from Charsadda Road to Mulazai Chowk. Work on it started in 2015 and was scheduled to complete in 2012. However, it was revised to Dec 31, 2025. This phase has so far seen completion of 64pc work.

Similarly, work on the 5.1km Package 3A, which runs from Mulazai Chowk to Nasir Bagh Road, has been going on since 2013. It was scheduled to be completed in 2014. However, it was later revised to Dec 31, 2025. A total of 86.5pc of work has been completed in this phase.

Work on Package 3B, which is 5.47km from Nasir Bagh to Takhta Baig checkpost in Khyber district, was launched in Dec 2023 with the scheduled to open in June this year. However, the project deadline was revised to Feb 2026.

The project’s PC-I, according to documents available with Dawn, was originally conceived with a cost tag of Rs3.07 billion. In the second PC-I revision, the cost was jacked up to Rs9 billion, Rs21.3 billion in the second revision and Rs27.05 billion in third revision.

The documents pointed out that the project, which was in its closing stages, had a PSDP allocation of Rs500 million for the current fiscal against the requirement of Rs4.27 billion.

They highlighted the importance of revising the PSDP allocation for the current fiscal to Rs5.3 billion, including Rs4.27 billion actual estimate and Rs1.1 billion for escalation.

The project, according to documents, requires Rs0.37 billion in the first quarter, Rs2 billion in the second and third quarters and Rs1 billion in the fourth quarter. In 2013, the then Peshawar High Court chief justice, Dost Mohammad Khan, also took a suo motu notice of the project delay.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2026