KARACHI, Feb 7: Chairman National Highway Authority (NHA), Maj-Gen Farrukh Javed, said on Thursday that a comprehensive plan had been formulated for the resettlement of the affectees of the Lyari expressway and the Karachi northern bypass projects.

He was addressing a news conference in Sohrab Goth where he gave details of both the projects.

He expressed the hope that both the projects would be completed in their stipulated time of about 36 months and 30 months respectively, adding that the financial condition was ‘satisfactorily comfortable’.

Later he visited the sites of the Lyari expressway, the Karachi northern bypass and the Makran coastal highway. There, he also heard the complaints of the affectees of the projects and assured them that their problem would be resolved.

He said that a comprehensive policy had been chalked out with the consultation of provincial minister Dewan Muhammad Yousuf and Nazim Karachi Naimatullah Khan.

The chairman NHA was accompanied by Saeed Malik, member Planning Commission, GM NHA Sindh, Mian Abdul Haq and other senior officers of the NHA.

He also visited Sohrab Goth, Rashid Minhas, Teen Hatti and Civic Centre bridges built on the Lyari river.

The chairman NHA informed that the Lyari expressway and the KNP would be inaugurated on 23rd March by President Gen Pervaiz Musharraf.

He said the government had approved the projects keeping in view the increasing pressure of traffic. The completion of both the projects would benefit the people of Karachi at large. He said the two projects were entirely different in concept and character and none of them could be a substitute for the other.

He said the completion of the 16.5-km Lyari expressway project, costing Rs5 billion, would help discipline the traffic and enhance the city’s beauty.

About the 57-km-long northern bypass project, the NHA chairman said that it would facilitate heavy traffic from the Karachi port to the rest of the country.

He said it would also link the port to the Super Highway, passing through the Mauripur Road, Sher Shah, along the RCD Highway and the northern outskirts of the city.

Talking about the Makran coastal belt, he said it was about 700-km-long along the Arabian Sea in the south of Balochistan along which small parts of Ormara, Pasni, Gawadar and Jiwani were located, but there was no road, expect a “Kutcha” (non-metal) road to the National Highway, which caused trouble to the local population.

In connection with the development of backward areas, he said the government was giving priority to the coastal highway project as it would help reduce poverty and prove a source of national integrity.

He said the coastal highway would be completed at an estimated cost of Rs15 billion in three phases. He said the work on the Lyari Ormara and Gawadar-Pasni sections had started.

He said that the Gawader port must be considered as economic future of Pakistan and these projects should be linked with the poverty elimination program as financial conditions would change after their completion.

He emphasised the importance of developing road links between Sindh, Balochistan, up to Iran, and added that the coastal highway, the northern bypass) and the expressway were milestones that would change the future of Pakistan, especially Sindh and Balochistan.