Karachi-Hyderabad: NHA to begin work on motorway soon

ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) will begin work on the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) project soon.

An NHA official said the implementation of M-9 project was one of the top priorities of the authority and the Sindh government has been facilitating the NHA in administrative matters to ensure better and qualitative communication services to the people.

He said the 136-kilometre-long Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway was an important project not only for the commuters of both cities, but also for people of the entire country.

“Almost all the work except for 200 acres of land in Jamshoro district has been completed and hopefully construction will start this year,” he said.

To a question, he said at present Super Highway was in a dilapidated condition due to heavy traffic and expiry of its designed period.

He said for the repair and improvement of the highway, the NHA approved periodic maintenance schemes under the Annual Maintenance Plan (AMP) 2013-14 amounting to Rs305.28 million.

In the past few years, the NHA awarded the contract to two firms on Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis but both failed to complete work according to conditions of the contract, hence their services were terminated.

The project will cost Rs6.3 billion and the scope of the work includes the expansion of the road from four to six lanes and provision of service areas.