Lowari Tunnel to provide road links with Afghanistan, CAS

[Salman]

Lowari Tunnel to provide road links with Afghanistan, CAS


ISLAMABAD: An important meeting at Ministry of Communication was informed completion of Lowari Tunnel Project to provide durable road links with Afghanistan and Central Asian States (CAS) and hence will strengthen the country’s economy by facilitating trade, tourism, industry and agriculture.

Federal Minister for Communications Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan Khalil informed the meeting Rs 6.4 billion has been spent so far on the Lowari Tunnel project, which has a total cost of Rs 18 billion.

The contractors will soon resume work on the rest of the project, he added. The Minister said Ministry of Finance has released Rs 2 billion to NHA under the direction of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

The Federal Minister was told work on the project remained suspended due to devastating floods in the country and shortage of funds while the PC-1 was also revised due to change of design from rail tunnel to road tunnel.

The participants of the meeting were told the Lowari Road Tunnel comprises of two tunnels, each of 8.5 kilometres and 2 kilometres respectively.

Work on this project was started by GEO Consultants in collaboration with SAMBU of Korea and same companies would resume work on the project.

The Federal Minister apprised the participants this project is not only vital for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but, with its completion, a longstanding demand of the people of Chitral would also be fulfilled and the project itself would open new vistas of development and would establish durable road links with Afghanistan and Central Asian States. staff report