RAWALPINDI: The government has decided to include the project for the construction of the 58 kilometer long ring road in the next annual development program of the Punjab government. Progress on the road was slow mostly due to the lack of interest on part of the government.

A senior official of the Communication and Works Department (CWD) told Dawn that the Asian Development Bank has agreed to loan Rs42 billion for the project, but the government has decided to include it in the next annual development program as it is busy in political issues.

“The government wanted to construct the ring road on the basis of public-private partnership and the Frontier Works Organisation was also interested in the contract,” he said.

The provincial government later changed the plan and decided to get a loan from the Asian Development Bank and assigned the CWD to execute the project, he said.

The official added that the project was initiated by the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) in 1991 but it remained in files only due to changes in political governments.

In 2008, a fresh feasibility study was conducted for the construction of the ring road in the city from Channi Sher Alam to Fatehjang, near the new Islamabad airport.

The aim was to bring foreign investors in the project and built it on the basis of a public private partnership.

The RDA made changes to the original plan and reduced the length of the road from 75km to 58km and let go of the idea of establishing an economic zone as well as the plans for laying down rail tracks along the road to connect the main railway line with the new airport road.

In 2017, the government directed the RDA to hand over the project to the CWD for execution.

“The highway department experts will conduct a fresh survey of the proposed route of the ring road next month, so the homework will be completed in the next fiscal year and the project will be launched soon after the Punjab Planning and Development grants approval,” the official said.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2018