KARACHI, Jan 30: Lyari Expressway Resettlement project, with Rs2.87 billion funds provided by the federal government, will be completed by June 2006, while 100 per cent Right of Way on LEW will be ready by June this year.

Sindh government gave 461 acres land for 38.5 kilometres project, along with interchanges, for 32-feet-wide dual carriage expressway, as its share in the project.

Director, Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project, Shafique Rehman Paracha, speaking in a Radio Pakistan programme, said that so far Rs55 crores had been spent on providing residential facilities to the people who had to shift their houses from Lyari area to the resettlement sites set up at Hawkesbay, Surjani Town and Baldia Colony.

A total of 11,000 families had been allotted 80 square yards plots free of cost in the localities, besides payment of Rs50,000 to each family as compensation, he added.

Mr Paracha said the resettlement project would help check encroachments and illegal settlements in Lyari river and adjoining areas, thereby eliminating slums in the city.

The Expressway would also help ease traffic congestion, as vehicles would not enter the city while loading and unloading goods at the port and going through Super Highway, he added.

At the same time, completion of Northern Bypass would provide two alternative roads for up and down movement of goods, besides heavy traffic, Mr Paracha stated. -PPI