NHA approves Rs 4,195 million PC-1 for construction of bridge over Indus

[LahoreEstate]

RECORDER REPORT
ISLAMABAD (September 06 2009): The Executive Board of National Highway Authority (NHA) on Saturday approved PC-1 worth Rs 4,195 million for the construction of bridge over Indus River at Amri-Qazi Ahmed. The approval was given by NHA Chairman Altaf Ahmed Chaudhary during the meeting of Executive Board.

The chairman also gave approval to several important construction projects and recommended its further approval by the CDWP and ECNEC. Giving details of the project, the NHA Chairman informed the board that the bridge would be about 1.4-kilometre long and the project would also include construction of 15-kilometre long approach roads and two-kilometre long flood protection works.

He said that at present, people from Sanghar, Nawabshah and Dadu districts had to cover long distance to cross the river, and added the construction of the bridge would not only facilitate people by reducing the distance across the river, but would also provide a lateral linkage between G.T. Road (N-5) and the Indus Highway (N-55) that formed important components of the government's National Trade Corridor programme.

He said a 30-kilometre long bypass, connecting Saeedabad toll plaza and Nawabshah, would also be made part of this project. The NHA Chairman also informed the meeting about recent court decision to vacate the stay orders against encashment of contractor's bank guarantees worth Rs 135 million on Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) in favour of the NHA.

He told the meeting that the project was awarded to Standard Construction in 2006, but later it was terminated when the contractor failed to meet the required financial close.

He said that the NHA regional offices had been directed to accelerate pace on all the ongoing projects to ensure their in time completion. He said that work on Kalat-Quetta-Chaman highway would be completed by 2010. Finance Member Zafar Iqbal Gondal; Member, Planning, Raja Nousherwan; Member, Operations, Akbar Hussain Rashidi; Member, Motorway, Ashfak Jumani; Member, Finance Division, Ayoub Khan Tarin; Chief of NTRC Kazim Idrees; Member, Planning Commission, Munir Anjum and senior officials from the Nespak and Ministry of Communications attended the meeting

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