Revamp likely for Peshawar-Torkham motorway project

ISLAMABAD: The government is considering a restructuring of the World Bank-funded Peshawar-Torkham Motorway project after repeated delays and a sharp escalation in cost estimates, according to details reported in official planning documents and a recently cleared working paper.

The scheme, financed through a $460 million World Bank loan, was originally conceived under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Economic Corridor (KPEC) as a 47.55-kilometre, four-lane access-controlled motorway with dual carriageways. The roadway was planned to be 7.3 metres wide and was presented as part of the wider Peshawar-Jalalabad-Kabul motorway initiative.

The loan agreement with the World Bank was signed in December 2019, and became effective on June 12, 2020, with a closing date of May 28, 2026. However, the project has still not begun, while documentation also remains incomplete. At the time of loan signing, the scheme was estimated at Rs41.44 billion.

The project also included a 55km four-lane Southern Link Road intended to connect the Peshawar-Torkham Motorway with N-55 at Badhbher and then onward to N-5 between Chamkani and Jhagra. It was promoted as a traditional trade route offering the shortest connection between Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Arabian Sea, and was described as a project aimed at boosting regional interaction and trade.

Revised plan removes Southern Link Road

Last month, the Central Development Working Party cleared a working paper proposing restructuring and a revised implementation approach after the project made no progress either on the ground or in paperwork, while its projected cost rose to nearly Rs130 billion.

Under the revised plan, the Southern Link Road has been dropped. The remaining Peshawar-Torkham Expressway, described in the revised approach as 45km, has been divided into three lots of about 14.3km, 15km and 15km.

The Planning Commission noted that the project’s performance reflected weak capacity among all stakeholders, including the National Highway Authority, the Ministry of Communications, the Economic Affairs Division and the World Bank. Negotiations are under way for an extension of the loan.

The Planning Commission wrote:

"The project being foreign funded and approved back in August 2020 is unable to start and kick off in the last 5.5 years"

According to the commission, bids were cancelled multiple times because they exceeded estimated costs and the available loan coverage. The documents also stated that the approved PC-I had been based on a preliminary design and a design-build execution model, which contributed to repeated bids coming in above the revised cost estimates.

The original estimates were also based on the National Highway Authority’s Composite Scheduled Rates of 2014. In the latest position paper submitted last month, it was reported that detailed design work is still in progress and not yet complete.

"detailed design is underway and yet to be completed and a revised PC-I will be submitted after detail design and updated CSR 2025 rates"

The project had drawn criticism at the time of the loan signing under controversial circumstances, and had been labelled a road to nowhere because there was no comparable connecting infrastructure across the border.