ISLAMABAD, Feb 18: The Makran coastal highway and the Gwadar deep sea port projects will be completed simultaneously by 2005, Federal Minister for Communications Ahmed Ali on Wednesday tells the Senate.

The minister, in a written reply submitted in response to a question raised by Senator Sanaullah Baloch, stated that six different construction companies were working on the Makran coastal highway project, adding it would be completed by January 2005.

The highway was being constructed in three sections and work on two of its sections - Liari-Ormara and Pasni-Gwadar - would be completed by June, 2004, the minister said.

The federal communication minister stated that work on the 248-kilometre Liari-Ormara section was being carried out by the Frontier Works Organization, which had further sub-let construction of 60-kilometre to Sachal Construction Company.

Three different companies - Al-Khan, Nazir and AM and Sardar Mohammad Baluch - were working on 153-kilometre long Ormara-Pasni section. The 132.5-kilometre Pasni-Gwadar section of the highway was being constructed by the FWO, which had sought the assistance of Hasnain Construction Company for constructing a 50-kilometre patch.

The minister, while replying to a supplementary question, the minister said that construction companies had been hired through inviting tenders.

In response to another question raised by Sanaullah Baloch, the communications minister said the main contract for construction of Gwadar Deep Water Port Project was signed between the governments of Pakistan and China on March 15, 2002.

China is providing a financial assistance amounting to $198 million for the phase-I of the project. To the second part of the question as to whether the province was taken into confidence before signing the agreement, the minister said no province was made a party as it was an agreement between two governments.

The minister, while responding to another question posed by Mr Baloch, said that the National Highways Authority was presently constructing three different highways in the Balochistan province at a cost of about Rs13 billion.

The Senate was informed that the Rs9.6 billion would be spent on the Makran coastal highway project (N-10), Rs1.82 billion on the National Highway (N-65) and Rs1.4 billion on National Highway (N-70).