KARACHI, Jan 14 The Gizri flyover opened to traffic on Thursday.

A Defence Housing Authority (DHA) official said that the flyover was opened after a division bench of the Sindh High Court ordered the DHA on Wednesday to open the flyover at its discretion and fulfil all the requirements enumerated in the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) within 60 days.

The administrator of the DHA, Brigadier Khalid Tirmizi, inaugurated the project. The flyover is located along Khayaban-i-Hafiz at Gizri Commercial Area.

The official said that the 1.2-kilometre-long bridge had been fully completed and lights and sound barriers/screens had been installed on the bridge.

The Gizri flyover project was completed at an estimated cost of Rs700 million. The bridge is 15 metres wide and has two lanes on each side.

National Engineering Services Pakistan (Pvt) Limited (NESPAK) provided consultancy on the project while M/s Usmani Associates was the contractor who constructed the bridge, according to a statement issued on Thursday.

The statement said that the construction of the bridge commenced in Feb 2007 and was stipulated to be completed within two years.

The completion of the bridge however got delayed because of a number of reasons including shifting of gas pipelines, revision of the bridge design, shifting of electric cables and poles and a court stay order.

The administrator of the DHA congratulated the consultant, contractor and DHA engineers on completing the construction of the bridge.

The DHA would comply with all the directions of the court and remove all the

environmental concerns stipulated in the Environmental Impact Assessment of Sepa, the administrator of the DHA said. He said that the DHA stood for the service of residents and would not take any step which could cause any inconvenience to them.—APP