National Assembly was informed on Thursday that National Highway Authority (NHA) plans to construct two more motorways and four expressways in the country in the near future.
Minister for Communication, Arbab Alamgir Khan in written reply to the House said that two motorways namely M-4 Faisalabad-Multan (241km) and M-9 Karachi-Hyderabad (136km) while four expressways including E-1 Peshawar-Torkham (51km), E-3 Wazirabad-Kot Sarwar (87km), E-5A Khanewal-Bahawalpur (103km) and E-35 Hassanabdal-Mansehra (109km) would be constructed in the near future.
However, while responding a supplementary, Parliamentary Secretary for Communications Chaudhry Saeed Iqbal said that the M-4 would be constructed by 2013 while work on M-9 will be started this year. He further said that the express ways projects would be constructed during 2012-2016.
To another question, he said that the NHA has undertaken 60 development projects in different areas of the country during the last three years. He informed the House that last year's flood had completely damaged 410 km roads of NHA, while 383 km roads were partially damaged. He further said that the floods also washed away 20 bridges and partially damaged 26 bridges in different parts of the country.
The parliamentary secretary said that Rs 23. 6 billion had been recommended under the PC-1 to launch post-flood reconstruction and rehabilitation projects to mitigate sufferings of the affected people. He said that the maintenance work on National Highway from Karachi to Hyderabad was also underway, which will be completed by June this year.