Karachi-Lahore Motorway: 10 firms show interest in bidding: NHA chairman

[Salman]

Karachi-Lahore Motorway: 10 firms show interest in bidding: NHA chairman

Chairman National Highway Authority Shahid Ashraf Tarrar has said that for construction of Karachi-Lahore Motorway on BOT basis, various national and international construction companies have been invited through advertisements in the press to take part in the bidding of this mega project, and till now, up to 10 companies have shown interest to take part in its bidding.

This was stated by Chairman NHA in his key-note address at the 237th meeting of NHA's Executive Board, here on Thursday. Other members of the Executive Board present on the occasion were Inspector General of Motorway Police Zulfiqar Ahmad Cheema, Additional Secretary Budget Dr Shujaat Ali, Member Infrastructures, Planning and Development Division Malik Ahmad Khan, Joint Secretaries, Ministry of Communications Mohtarma Amna Imran Khan and Sabeeno Sikandar Jalal, Vice President Nespak Qazi Iftikhar Ahmad, Member Construction NHA Yousaf Ali Khan, Member Finance Shoaib Ahmad Khan, and Secretary NHA Ali Akbar Memon.

At the outset, the meeting gave an approval to all the Agenda Points of the previous Board Meeting, after that various fresh points on the agenda were discussed in details. The approval was accorded the revised PC-1 of Peshawar Northern Bypass Project and it was also decided to take the assistance of the concerned C&W Department before releasing arrears accruing to the NHA regarding the link roads of Khairpur-Larkana Bridge.

The Executive Board also submitted its recommendations to the National Highway Council for the proposed the NHA Budget for the year 2014-15. It was also decided to formulate a comprehensive policy regarding the construction of fly-overs on NHA's road network.

The Chairman NHA also ordered setting up of a three-member committee to probe financial matters of all NHA projects and submit its recommendations in the upcoming Executive Board Meeting, so that transparency and efficiency could be ensured in NHA's administrative and construction process, and construction of durable and cost effective highways could be made possible in line with the Development Vision of Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif. -PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2014