ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) is awarding Rs 24.93 billion contract for construction of Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) to Malaysian company.

This was decided in a meeting of the NHA Executive Board, held with Syed Muhammad Ali Gardezi in the chair on Friday.

The NHA Executive Board accorded approval to award the contract to Malaysian company M/s BINAPURI Holding, on Built Operate Transfer (BOT) basis with concessionaire period of 28 years to upgrade the existing 4-Lane Karachi-Hyderabad Super Highway into 6-Lane Motorway.

The NHA had advertised for open competition amongst the interested parties for construction of the motorway for which several companies including NLC, BINAPURI Holding Malaysia, EOBI, SAMBO, CRBC China and one Turkish Construction Company submitted their proposals. After detailed financial & technical evaluation, proposal of M/s BINAPURI Holding was accepted. Gardezi said that the proposed 136-kms long motorway will be completed in three years, as work on the project is likely to start in coming month. He said that 7 interchanges, 2 service areas & 16 toll plazas will also be constructed.

Foreign investment in the NHA projects is being encouraged to reduce financial load on national exchequer and construction of M-9 on BOT basis is a practical step towards this end, he maintained, adding that there are vast opportunities of foreign investment in Highway Projects and we are trying to involve foreign construction companies in this construction process.

Rana Asad Amin Special Secretary Finance Division, Muneer Ahmed Anjum Chief T&C Planning Commission, Abdul Basit Khan Senior Joint Secretary Ministry of Communications, Bashir Ahmed Chief NTRC and Vice President Nespak Qazi Iftikhar Ahmed were present on the occasion.