RAWALPINDI, April 17: The government has planned to construct a motorway between Faisalabad and Khanewal to improve trade flows, reduce transit costs and travel time by providing a high-speed, safe and reliable access controlled motorway system.

Commencement of site works on the proposed Faisalabad- Khanewal Motorway (M-4) by the National Highway Authority (NHA) is expected in early 2008 with an estimated completion date of late 2010, says the project document prepared by the NHA.

The project has been conceived to provide fast and safe access to traffic and facilitate transportation of goods from Central Asia and China to the ports of Karachi and Gwadar. I will also provide easy access for residents of Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Khanewal, Multan districts to Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

It says that the road alignment will start at the end-point of M-3, near Faisalabad, and will extend for 184 kilometres to N- 5, near Khanewal. M-4 will include construction of a two-lane dual carriageway and construction of nine interchanges at road crossings. Two bridges will also be constructed: one at Sadhnai Spill channel and the other across Ravi River.

Proposed carriageways will include inner and outer paved shoulders. Based on the traffic projection survey, approximately 14,561 vehicles per year will use the motorway at its commissioning in 2010. By 2020, this will increase to about 27,067 vehicles.

According to the document, the annual operations and maintenance costs and overlaying costs have been calculated to be Rs58.874 million and Rs2,980.014 million, respectively.

The proposed project will be constructed on a new alignment for which about 1,940 hectares of land will be acquired; about 200 mud or brick structures will need to be demolished. There will also be losses due to removal of other infrastructure such as farmhouses, tubewells and poultry farms.

It is estimated that about 18,000 trees, found in agricultural fields throughout the project area, will be chopped and for every tree disappeared, four trees will be planted to compensate the loss in vegetation. Plantation would be undertaken on a 25 metres strip of land on both sides of the road, it added.