NHA’s liabilities in maintenance cost slashed to Rs 7.5bn

[Salman]

NHA’s liabilities in maintenance cost slashed to Rs 7.5bn


ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority’s (NHA) executive board was informed here on Monday that in 2010, liabilities in maintenance cost were Rs 15 billion, which now due to financial discipline have been reduced to Rs 7.5 billion.

The NHA’s executive board met under the chairmanship of NHA Chairman Muhammad Ali Gardezi in which countrywide schemes of the authority were reviewed.

Senior officers from the Ministry of Finance, Planning commission, Ministry of Communications, NH&MW Police, NESPAK and NHA participated.

In his opening remarks Gardezi termed roads and source of forging inter-provincial harmony and socio-economic uplift. NHA is hard to complete development projects as per schedule. Keeping in view the challenges faced by the country, financial discipline is being observed, due to which highway projects are moving ahead satisfactorily. NHA is fully aware about the financial difficulties of the government and we are trying our level-best to reduce load on the national exchequer. To this effect, the private sector is being involved in highway building schemes, and foreign investment needs to be encouraged. He said the government of Sindh has approved a loan amounting to Rs 2.5 billion for highway projects in Sindh province which will help gear up pace of progress there.

The executive board also discussed Annual Maintenance Plan of NHA. The board members desired to present maintenance report after every three-month so that the board could remain aware about the progress of maintenance activities. A detailed briefing was also given regarding construction and rehabilitation of Alpuri-Besham segment of road. The 33.5 kilometres long road is being widened from 3.1 metres to 6.1 metres and Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and Asian Development Bank are providing financial assistance. PC-I of this project amounts to Rs 1.4 billion and by now 71 percent work has been completed.