LAHORE, April 22: The Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency is redoing the alignment of 70-kilometre Lahore Ring Road.

“As soon as we complete our work on the alignment of the road, we’ll forward the report to the government,” TEPA chief engineer Asif Hameed Khan told Dawn on Monday.

The project has been taken out of the cold storage following a directive from President Gen Pervez Musharraf, instructing the authorities concerned to “dust off the Ring Road plan.”

A feasibility report for the road was last finalized in 1997. The four-lane road was then estimated to cost around Rs17 billion.

Replying to a question, Mr Khan said the “cost of the road would remain more or less the same.” But, he said, it was likely now that the “government would finance the project from its own resources” instead of awarding the contract on build-operate-and-transfer basis.

The project was first conceived in 1990. In its structural plan strategy, prepared in 1982, the Lahore Development Authority, had mentioned the need for a southern by-pass to connect Bund Road with Multan Road, Canal Bank and Ferozepur Road to facilitate the commuters. The proposed road was 17 kilometres long. Its cost was estimated at about Rs2 billion. The plan, however, could not be implemented.

In 1990, the government announced its decision to construct the Lahore Ring Road, including the southern by-pass which would be constructed first. Due to lack of funds, the TEPA decided to award a BOT contract for the proposed project to the private sector. However, no-one showed much interest in the project.

In 1997, the government announced plans for the construction of Rs17 billion, 70-kilometre, Ring Road. The Lahore-Islamabad motorway had just been completed. Bids were again invited on BOT basis and the multinational company which had completed the M-2, showed interest, proposing to undertake the project if its loans for the motorway project were re-financed. The proposal was turned down by the government.

Since the inception of the city district government, the Nazim has been saying the project would be completed in the near future. Lack of private sector interest and public sector funds is again said to be the main impediment to commencement of work. Tepa officials, however, say the presidential directive has revived hopes of federal funds.