Pak to build twin capital across Margalla Hills

[Salman]

Islamabad: Pakistan is planning an ambitious USD 12-billion project that includes building a twin capital city across the scenic Margalla Hills and connecting it with Islamabad through a tunnel, a media report said on Thursday.

The project is being implemented on the directions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Capital Development Authority is working hard at it, The News daily reported.

Quoting sources, the report said the construction of two ring roads between Rawalpindi-Islamabad and a new airport at Rawat, Rawalpindi, are also part of this mega project which, as soon as finalised, would be announced by the Prime Minister himself.

The CDA's campaign to acquire 25,000 acres of land for the establishment of an Economic Zone and Multipurpose Zone, is also part of the same mega project.

The chairman of CDA had been asked by the prime minister to work on the project on a war footing to ensure it materialises at the earliest, the report said.

Talking about the salient features of the project, it said there was a proposal to build a new Islamabad across the Margalla Hills and then connect both the new Islamabad and the old Islamabad through a tunnel.

The Islamabad Highway starting from the Blue Area to Rawat would be widened to eight to 10 lanes with commercial multistoreyed buildings on both sides on the lines of Dubai's Shaikh Zayed Road.

A new international airport will be built at Rawat and it would also be connected with the Lahore-Islamabad Motorway.

The sources said that the government expects to earn billions of dollars by offering commercial plots on both sides of the proposed widened Islamabad Highway, which would serve as key economic and multipurpose zone.

Similarly, it is expected that the new Islamabad plots would also earn billions of dollars.

The sources said that foreign investors, particularly overseas Pakistanis, would be invited to invest in the project, the report said. The project would be implemented through a limited company - Pakistan Avenue Development Company - recently approved by the CDA Board.