Land acquisition top priority of government to start construction work of national highway: NA told

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Communication Abdul Hakeem Baloch on Wednesday informed the National Assembly that land acquisition was to priority of the present government to start construction work on any national highway.

Replying during a question hour in the House, the minister said that it was vision of the Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to construct Pak-China Economic Corridor as it would open new avenue of development in the country.

The minister said that construction work on road of Khangrab to Rai Koat had been completed and construction on the rest of road would be started soon.

The present government was introducing Integrated Transit Trade Management systems (ITTMS) in order to translate the vision of making Pakistan a 'Regional Trade and Transit' hub into reality and increase the import and export, Abdul Hakeem said that construction of Faisalabad-Multan Motorway, 241 Km would be financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

The minister said that Rs. 2,551.82 million has been allocated under Annual Maintenance Plan (AMP) for financial year 2013-14 for Balochistan for the maintenance of six Highways having total length of 3002 kms.