ISLAMABAD, Sept 5 The National Highway Authority has approved PC-1 for the construction of a bridge over the Indus at Amri-Qazi Ahmed, near Nawabshah, that is to be completed at a cost of Rs4,195 million.

The approval was given at a meeting of the executive board of the authority held here on Saturday and presided over by its Chairman Altaf Ahmed Chaudhry.

The project details will be sent to the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) for final endorsement, after which construction work will begin.

While giving details of the project, the chairman informed the members of the board that the bridge would be about 1.4km long and the project would also include construction of 15km long approach roads and 2km long flood protection works.

He said at present the people of Sanghar, Nawabshah and Dadu districts had to cover long distances in order to cross the river. The construction of the bridge would not only facilitate people by reducing the distance across the river but also provide a lateral linkage between the G.T. Road (N-5) and the Indus Highway (N-55) that form important components of government's National Trade Corridor programme. He said a 30km long bypass connecting Saeedabad toll plaza and Nawabshah also made part of this project.

The chairman informed the meeting about the recent court decision to vacate the stay orders against encashment of contractor's bank guarantees worth Rs135 million on the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) in favour of NHA. The project was awarded to M/s Standard Construction in 2006 but was later on terminated after the contractor failed to meet the required financial close.

He said NHA regional offices had been directed to accelerate pace on all the ongoing projects in order to ensure their timely completion. He said work on the Kalat-Quetta-Chaman highway would be completed by 2010.

Member Finance Zafar Iqbal Gondal, Member Planning Raja Nousherwan, Member Operations Akbar Hussain Rashidi, Member Motorway Ashfak Jumani, Member Finance Division Ayoub Khan Tarin, NTRC Chief Kazim Idrees, Member Planning Commission Munir Anjum and senior officials from NESPAK and the Ministry of Communications attended the meeting.