Dubai: Travel time between Islamabad to Swat will be reduced from five hours to 50 minutes once the new Swat Expressway is completed in 18 months, media reports said Thursday.

Work on the 81km long Swat Express Way was launched by the Khyber Pakhunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khatak. The inaugural ceremony was also attended by Imran Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

According to a statement by project developer Frontier Works Organisation, the Swat Expressway is a first highway mega project launched by the provincial government under the Public Private Partnership Act, 2014.

The project, which will cost Pakistani Rs41 billion (Dh1.44 billion), is being built by the Frontier Works Organisation under the Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis.

The 81-kilometre-long expressway will connect Karnal Sher Khan Interchange on Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway with Chakdara, tunnelling its way through mountains at Palai and Ala Dhand.

Two kilometres of the expressway will fall in the vicinity of Nowshera, 18km in Swabi, 40km in Mardan and 21km in Malakand. The total width of the expressway will be 80 metres.

Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority (PKHA) officials said the length of the tunnels had been estimated at about two kilometres.

According to present estimates, more than 18,000 vehicles will use this route daily, generating direct and indirect revenue for the government.

The expressway will be constructed on the pattern of motorway with as many as four lanes which will be extended to six lanes afterwards.

The new road will provide access to more than 40 villages which were previously inaccessible, generating numerous business opportunities for locals.

Besides providing job opportunities to residents of adjacent villages, these areas will also witness development because of easy access to major market places. Previously, these areas remained backward because they were cut off from major routes making transportation and business extremely difficult.

Moreover, the route will also boost tourism sector because of easy access to tourist spots in the scenic Swat Valley and adjacent areas and will generate indirect revenue for the province and business opportunities for thousands of people.

The expressway is also of strategic importance because it will provide easy and fast access to remote areas that were previously inaccessible.