• WB-funded scheme faces cost overruns
• Southern Link Road dropped as cost surges to nearly Rs130bn

ISLAMABAD: The government is considering to restructure the 47-kilometre Peshawar-Torkham Motorway project, funded through a $460 million (about Rs130 billion) World Bank loan, owing to multiple challenges that have led to massive delays and cost overruns.

The loan agreement with the World Bank was signed in December 2019 under controversial circumstances, with the project being dubbed a “road to nowhere” owing to the absence of comparable connecting infrastructure across the border.

The loan became effective on June 12, 2020, with a closing date of May 28, 2026.

However, the project has yet to take off even though the loan has crossed its closing date and its documents are also yet to be completed.

The Peshawar-Torkham Expressway Project, being implemented under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Corridor (KPEC), was envisaged as a 47.55km, four-lane, 7.3 metres wide access-controlled motorway with dual carriageways. It was planned as part of the Peshawar-Jalalabad-Kabul motorway project.

The scope of the project was originally estimated at Rs41.44bn at the time of loan signing in December 2019. Its scope of work included the construction of a 55km four-lane Southern Link Road connecting the Peshawar-Torkham Motorway to N-55 at Badhbher and further linking it with N-5 between Chamkani and Jhagra.

It was pitched as a traditional trade route providing shortest link between Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Arabian Sea. The project was touted as an opportunity to drive economic transformation, increase regional interactions and establish the area as a centre for trade and commerce.

Southern Link Road dropped

Last month, an informed source said the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) cleared a working paper for restructuring and a revised implementation approach, given that the project had made no progress either on the ground or in papers, while its cost had touched almost Rs130bn.

Under the revised plan, the Southern Link Road has been deleted and the division of the 45km Peshawar-Torkham Expressway into three lots of approximately 14.3km, 15km and 15km has been allowed.

This was despite the fact that the Planning Commission had noted that the project’s progress reflected poor capacity on the part of all stakeholders, including the National Highway Authority (NHA), Ministry of Communications, Economic Affairs Division and the World Bank. The loan extension is being negotiated at present. “The project being foreign funded and approved back in August 2020 is unable to start and kick off in the last 5.5 years”, the Planning Commission wrote, adding that bids were cancelled multiple times for exceeding estimated costs and loan coverage.

Yet even while providing justification for high bid cost, it was stated that the PC-I approved was based on the preliminary design with the modality of execution as “design build”. Therefore, every time the bids repeatedly exceeded the approved revised cost estimates.

Furthermore, the original estimates were based on the NHA’s Composite Scheduled Rates (CSR) of 2014. Still while submitting the fresh position paper last month, it was reported that the “detailed design is underway and yet to be completed and a revised PC-I will be submitted after detail design and updated CSR 2025 rates”.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2026