ISLAMABAD: The government intends to take Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway (M-6), a critical component of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode with an estimated cost of Rs175 billion.
In order to ensure better planning of Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway project and attract private investment in this scheme, the National Highways Authority (NHA) arranged a stakeholders’ consultation with the cooperation of Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) at the NHA Headquarters, where professionals hailing from the construction industry, contractors, and financers were invited at large.
Commercial Attaché of Saudi Arabia based in Islamabad, representatives of the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank Group also participated in the session via video link.
Chairman National Highways Authority Capt (retired) Sikander Qayyum said the main purpose of inviting the best professionals in their respective field was to invite fresh ideas regarding procurement of only missing motorway link i-e-Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway to complete the North-South Economic Corridor.
Capt (retired) Qayyum said the NHA was endeavoring hard for early start of construction activity on this mega project.
Prime Minister Imran Khan also desires provision of strong infrastructure for rapid socio-economic development in the country.
To this effect, he said, the role of motorways and national highways is an accepted one.
He further said the NHA was obtaining cooperation of the private sector in motorways and highways building schemes with the view to reduce financial load on the national exchequer.
He said the Public Private Partnership (PPP) had been prevalent nowadays in developing as well as developed nations of the world.
Creation of the private sector’s interest in infrastructure projects for better service delivery is the tool being used successfully.
Capt (retired) Qayyum also recalled countrywide motorways and national highways projects being undertaken under the gigantic China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) programme.
The NHA is committed to put the country on the track towards socio-economic development.
He hoped that that consultative session of the professionals would pave the way to formulate viable recommendations to achieve the objective.
The length of proposed Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway will be 306 km, 14 interchanges, one major bridge on River Indus, six flyovers, 10 Service Areas and 12 Rest Areas will also be built on this motorway.
The project is planned to be completed in 30 months at construction cost of approximately Rs175 billion with Intelligent Transport System (ITS)
The CEO of the Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA) Malik Ahmad Khan expressed deep sense of gratitude to the participants for expressing interest in the consultative session.
He said deliberations of consultation session on every phase and aspect of the Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway procurement starting from alignment, structuring and financing had been very informative and thought provoking.
He said this consultative session had opened up numerous vistas of procurement methodologies and helped us to outline proposed structure of the project.
Proposals and recommendations put forward by the professionals will be forwarded to high government authorities for decision, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020