KARACHI, April 27: President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that with the progress achieved in the communication sector, not only all parts of Pakistan would be integrated with each other within the next three years but the country would also be integrated with the Central Asian states.

He was speaking as chief guest while performing the ground-breaking ceremony of Rs5 billion 16.6km-long Lyari Expressway and Rs3 billion 56km-long Northern Bypass, at an impressive ceremony held at the intersection of Mauripur Road and Mirza Adam Khan Road here tonight.

The president, while visualising the Pakistan’s future in the communication sector, pointed out that in the next 3-4 years the coastal highway would be completed, all roads in Northern Areas would be constructed linking Chitral, Hunza, Kaghan, Gilgit, Skardu valleys with each other.

By that time the Northern Bypass would also have been completed and linked with the coastal highway, besides completion of Lyari Expressway, M-1 from Peshawar to Pindi, M-3 from Lahore to Faisalabad and M-4 from Faisalabad to Multan.

The president said that during the next 3-4 years this whole communication link would be ready and thus the whole country would be having an integrated network of roads making Pakistan an integrated country.

He said that in the 3-4 years period, Pakistan would have three highways — the National Highway, the existing G.T. Road and the Indus Highway — and said when this whole network would be completed, there would come the real integration of Pakistan.

The president while referring to the two projects of Lyari Expressway and Northern Bypass, recalled that initially the government was to construct Northern Bypass (M-10) which was estimated at Rs10 billion.

However, while discussing the presentation in this regard, the idea of Lyari Expressway also sprang up and then it was assessed that both these projects, with a modification in the bypass design, could be completed at a cost of Rs8 billion with bypass costing Rs3 billion and expressway Rs5 billion and finally it was decided to take up this plan.

The president said that construction of Northern Bypass would help carry the entire heavy traffic from port areas to upcountry, without entering the city via Super Highway, thus saving our roads from overloading and damage.

He said the Expressway would also add to the beauty of the city.—APP