ISLAMABAD: National Highway Authority (NHA) Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar said that the early completion of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s (CPEC) western route was its top priority as it passed through the less privileged areas of the country.
He was speaking to the participants of Inland Study Tour of 105th National Management Course that visited NHA head office. He said that the roads under NHA constituted only 4% of country’s entire network, but they carried 80% of commercial and 65% of cargo traffic load and that development projects worth Rs 950 billion were being executed which includes CPEC.
He apprised the audience about the concept of one corridor and multiple routes and said work on different sections of the western alignments had already started and expressed his hope to complete the work in the next two years.
He also informed that for the first time in country’s history, substantial private sector investment was encouraged towards highway schemes and projects worth over Rs 140 billion were awarded on Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis during the last two years. The chairman said that due to transparency in procurement process, NHA managed to save Rs 300 billion.
