RAWALPINDI, Dec 29: The fate of the multi-billion Ring Road project in Rawalpindi will be decided in China during Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif's visit to Beijing in the first week of January.

The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), the district administration and the communication and works (C&W) department are busy in preparing the feasibility and technical evaluation of the project slated to be the most expensive in Punjab.

“We have almost finalised the detailed documents of Ring Road for briefing the chief minister before his China visit in the first week of 2011. The project can be materialised only with foreign funding,” a source in the C&W department said.

The Rs60 billion Ring Road was proposed in 1991 with an aim to link the rural population with the city and cantonment areas in Rawalpindi. The project would also help in shifting industrial activities from the city limits.

The road would start from Channi Sher Alam near Rawat town and cross Girja Road and Chakri Road besides stretching towards the under-construction new Islamabad airport at Fatehjhang.

The revenue authorities in Rawalpindi engaged in acquiring of land for the project told Dawn on Wednesday that around Rs22 billion were needed for purchasing land and paying compensation to the people whose properties would be demolished for constructing the road.

The chief minister's entourage to China, according to sources, would include engineers who will brief the authorities in Beijing about the importance of the project that would open new economic activities in Rawalpindi.

Sources said the chief minister would also be briefed on a number of other multi-billion projects before the visit, adding Ring Road was the only project that involved heavy investment.

Recently, top bureaucrats during a meeting in Rawalpindi directed the city managers to reduce the width and length of the road in order to cut its cost; however, some PML-N lawmakers did not accept the idea as it would deprive several rural areas of the facility.

Director land development and estate management Rawalpindi Development Authority Shuja Ali told this reporter that the entire aspects of the ring road were being evaluated in order to attract interest of donors, adding the road would be a landmark project in case it was materialised.

The length of the proposed road, according to the 1992 and 1997 feasibility reports, was 40km and 55km; however, the fresh feasibility has estimated it at 70km.