Pakistan: PM lays foundation for 306km M-6 motorway to link south to north — from Karachi to Peshawar

Karachi: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has laid the foundation stone for the Rs307 billion Hyderabad-Sukkur (M-6) motorway on Wednesday with the landmark project expected to be completed in record 30 months.

Its completion will round off the modern infrastructure project that will connect south to north — From Karachi to Peshawar and beyond.

The 306km M-6 motorway project will come up under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The federal government will spend Rs9.5 billion while private partners will arrange the rest of the financing.

The six-lane high speed motorway will intersect six districts of Sindh. The M-6 motorway will comprise 15 interchanges, six flyovers, and 10 service areas. The completion of the M-6 motorway under the PPP regime means that the highway project will ultimately become profitable for its investors on the basis of its toll earnings.

25,000 jobs

The project is expected to generate job opportunities for 25,000 people. The project will cut by half the travel time between Hyderabad and Sukkur as almost six hours are required now for this journey via the existing road network.

The Sindh government said that its prompt action had saved millions of rupees provided by the National Highway Authority for procuring land for the M-6 motorway as otherwise the massive sum from the public exchequer could have been embezzled by the corrupt officials. The spokesman for the provincial government said that strict penal action had been launched against the officials who had attempted to embezzle public money reserved for the M-6 project.

While speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Shehbaz Sharif directed the executioners of the project to make sure that the standard of the M-6 project shouldn’t be lesser in quality than that of the existing motorway infrastructure in the country.

He said the network of modern road infrastructure was being expanded to every part of the country to ensure the prosperity of every area of Pakistan.

He assured the audience that the same PPP mode would be adopted to launch several more development projects to ensure the uplift of the underprivileged areas of Pakistan.

The government would also continue serving the flood victims in the country till their complete rehabilitation, he added.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah urged the federal government to give preference to the local population while employing people for building the M-6 motorway.

He also requested the PM to make sure that the toll tax of M-6 for its users shouldn’t increase the charges of the existing motorways in the country.