Government to meet 70 percent cost of Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway

[Salman]

The government would meet 70 per cent cost of 129-kilometre-long Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway by acquiring a loan, it emerged on Saturday. Sources said that the government would require Rs 36.122 billion to construct a portion of Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway with 70pc financing structure (Rs 25bn) as debt and 30pc (Rs 10.8bn) as equity.

They added that all efforts would be put in to completing the project within 30 months as conversion of existing Karachi-Hyderabad Super Highway into six lanes motorway was an important part of the high priority Karachi-Lahore Motorway (KLM) project.

The National Highway Authority (NHA), which intends to undertake the project on build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) basis, has accorded approval to the concession agreement. It was approved by NHA's Executive Board on February 13, 2015 and has also been finalised with the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO). The signing ceremony of the concession accord is expected to take place this month.

Karachi-Lahore Motorway consists of two parts, one in Sindh and other in Punjab, with a total length of 1156kms. The length of the project in Sindh is around 554kms and in Punjab 602kms for which around 25,925 acres of land will be required. Sources added that progress on land acquisition has been very good as authorities have acquired land in various districts through focal persons - additional deputy commissioners of respective districts. A senior official of Planning Commission told Business Recorder that Karachi-Lahore Motorway will provide a safe passage to the commuters and cargo across the National Trade Corridor. The project has been planned to provide speedy and uninterrupted commercial trafficking zone, which will put the economy on fast track. It was argued that the majority of commuters prefer to use road network for transportation purposes for movement of cargo traffic from Karachi to Lahore and onward with a linkage to the sea port of Gawadar. M/s Power China has submitted bids for 296kms Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway and 276kms Khanewal-Lahore Motorway, while M/s China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited has submitted a bid for Khanewal-Lahore Motorway project. The two bidders were called for clarification and detailed presentation on their financial proposals after they were technically qualified, the sources said, adding that detailed financial evaluation is in hand by the NHA and Infrastructure Project Developed Facility (IPDF).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015