Aleem Khan holds Punjab and KP responsible for highway project delays

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan on Friday said delays by the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments were slowing the completion of several highway schemes, as he chaired a review meeting of the National Highway Authority (NHA).

During the meeting, the minister directed officials to speed up work on key infrastructure projects and indicated that the federal government would step in where provincial commitments had not been met. He expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of progress on projects linked to the Punjab and KP governments and said delays would no longer be accepted because they were affecting a number of important schemes.

Khan specifically referred to the Peshawar Northern Bypass, saying the NHA had waited for more than five months for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to provide funding. He said that if the provincial funds were still not released, the authority would complete the project on its own.

He also said the Punjab government had not been able to provide its committed share for the Rawalpindi-Kahuta project. In response, he instructed the NHA to take full responsibility for completing the unfinished transit corridors.

Motorway expansion and project deadlines

Alongside these directions, the minister ordered an expansion of the motorway network. He instructed that the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway be widened from four lanes to six, while the Sialkot-Kharian and Kharian-Rawalpindi stretches should be constructed as six-lane motorways.

Khan stressed that technical standards and deadlines must be met. He directed that feasibility studies for all NHA projects should achieve 100pc accuracy. He also ordered that the final stages of ongoing work, especially the bridges on the Peshawar Northern Bypass, be finished before the July monsoon season.

The meeting was attended by the communications secretary and the NHA chairman. It also gave the minister an opportunity to voice displeasure over what he described as the slow pace of work. He said he would give priority to the swift completion of projects aimed at improving the efficiency of the country’s transport infrastructure.

Background of the Northern Bypass project

The Northern Bypass project is part of efforts to complete the Ring Road around Peshawar. However, it has remained stalled for the past 17 years because of delays in releases under the federal Public Sector Development Programme and other issues.

Last year, the KP government formally agreed to arrange bridge financing of Rs4 billion to help ensure the early completion of the Northern Bypass. The project, however, required Rs5.3 billion to complete its final phase on schedule.

delays would no longer be tolerated

The minister’s remarks came as the federal government reviewed progress on major road links and sought to push ahead with pending sections that have faced repeated setbacks.