PML-N govt increased investments in road infrastructure to Rs320bn: Miftah Ismail

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government has increased investments for highways and motorways from around Rs 50 billion in 2012-13 to Rs 320 billion in 2017-18.    This was stated by Minister of Finance,Revenue and Economic Affairs Miftah Ismail here on Friday delivering budget speech.

He said that an amount of Rs 842 billion were allocated through the PSDP during past five years while off-budget financing of Rs 500 billion was also arranged by employing innovative public-private-partnership modes.

He said that through this investment 3,655 km new roads had been added while 1000 new road were added by the predecessor government in five years at the cost of Rs 123 billion.

He said that travelling experience between Peshawar and Lahore had been revolutionized by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif during 1990s.

During his current tenure he has ensured that the same experience is available throughout Pakistan.

Miftah said that Nawaz Sharif's dream of a trans-Pakistan motorway was near fulfillment and by the close of the fiscal year the length of motorways would be around 2500 kilometres. Some of the key motorway projects completed included 58 km Faisalabd-Gojra Motorway,56 km Khanewal-Multan Motorway and 136 km Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway,he added.

He said that this year, the government plans to complete Khuzdar-Shahdadkot Motorway,230 km Lahore-Multan Motorway,62 km Gojra-Shorkot and 64 km Shorkot-Khanewal Motorway,91 km Sialkot-Lahore Motorway and 57 km Hazara Motorway.

Mifah Ismail said that north-south connection on the western side was improved by constructing high class motorways and highways from Burhan near Islamabad,Peshawar Motorway to DG Khan and thereon Quetta via Zhob.

This link, he said would be completed by 2020. He said that Gwadar-Quetta link had already been inaugurated that had reduced the travel time between Gwadar and Quetta from more than 24 hours to eight hours and the for the first time,made the Gwadar port viable for Afghanistan and Central Asian States.

In budget 2018-19, an allocation of Rs 310 billion was proposed,the minister said.