ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: The National Highway Authority (NHA) has decided to immediately remove all the encroachments along the national highway (N-5) from Karachi to Torkham under an agreement with the World Bank.

The bank is contributing $125 million (Rs7.5 billion) in a Rs32 billion “National Highway Improvement Programme” that would complete dual N-5. Around 80 per cent of country’s total traffic is currently operating at the N-5.

Thousands of people have grabbed the state-owned land along the longest highway — touching the two ends of the country — by developing shanty towns, shops, kiosks and other businesses. Officially there is no estimate as to how many people would be displaced under the anti-encroachment drive.

Most of them belong to land mafia and cronies of the influential politicians but many have also encroached simply out of livelihood needs though they too have the backing of powerful groups, NHA chairman Furrukh Javed told the Dawn.

He said that the NHA had the right of way (RoW) over 70 metres under the law on either side of the road where nothing could be constructed under any circumstances. The building line could go up to 100 metres on each side and the NHA could issue an NOC for construction of a building at the area.

“We have to take back this encroached land and establish our writ and sovereignty over the 70-metre right of way and then commercialize it for revenue generation,” said the NHA chairman.

In most of the cases, NHA was compelled to make double payments to the encroachers because the right of possession carried more weight in the court of law than the real property rights, said NHA member (operations) Azizul Haq Mirza.

He acknowledged that it was the tax-payers money that was being unjustifiably paid twice; one at the time when the land was acquired for road construction and secondly at the time of removal of encroachment. He justified it by saying that the encroachers otherwise create law and order problem, and the government had to compensate the encroachers on human grounds.

He, however, could not justify how the condition of human grounds were being applied for a few illegal occupants at the cost of law-abiding citizens.

He pleaded that NGOs were trying to blow such issues out of proportion.

Mr Furrukh said that under the commercialization concept, the NHA was in negotiations with the people along the N-5 to vacate the area where they would be provided with facilities like parking, restaurants, service stations, pumps and other services in collaboration with the local governments, Nazimeen and municipal authorities.

He claimed that it would generate revenue both for the local governments and the NHA for maintenance and improvement of the roads.

The NHA chairman stated that his organization currently required around Rs6 billion every year as maintenance cost, while its total toll-tax earning amounted to around Rs2 billion. Another Rs600 million was being provided by the federal government under the PSDP allocation, thus there was a shortfall of around Rs3.4 billion which has to be generated through commercialization, he maintained.

He informed that it has been decided to construct a number of underpasses at the N-5 to link the people of both the sides of the highway.

He stated that initially two subways were being advertized for construction near Saddar, Rawalpindi, and another at Jehangira in NWFP, where commercial areas would be developed by the NHA to provide basic necessities. Open invitations would be floated to the private investors with the incentive to build, own and operate the subways or commercial areas, he added.

Mr Furrukh asserted that nurseries would be allowed along the N-5 which would not only give better and green look but also mask the dirty areas and shanty villages.

The chairman said that he was in negotiations with the Pakistan Trucks and Trollers Union to launch another campaign against overloading, a menace that was causing over Rs30 billion loss to the national economy every year.

The two-axle trucks were allowed to carry 17 tonnes of load but they were overloading to the extent of 30 tonnes. The truck owners have agreed to reduce the load to 20 tonnes in six months lap and then meet the road specification of 17-tonne load by the end of a year, he said.