Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar has granted approval for the construction of Rs. 50 billion Rawalpindi Ring Road. As per media reports, the endeavor shall be embarked upon under a public-private partnership.
The said development was brought to the media’s attention by the Commissioner, Capt. (Retd.) Mohammad Mehmood, who said that the approval for the project was granted during, “A meeting of the Public-Private Partnership and Monitoring Board to ease traffic congestion and boost economic activity in the region.”
He also stated that the companies have been invited to start working on the project within a couple of weeks.
Just as other mega projects, this one has also been divided into phases. The first phase, reportedly, is known as the package one, which includes land acquisition for the project. The budget for land acquisition is Rs. 6.7 billion, which has already been approved by the government.
In further detail about package one, it has been reported that about 14,600 kanals will be acquired in 27 villages as part of the ring road project.
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Furthermore, the government plans to acquire the area that is 110 feet wide, for constructing a 51-kilometer (km) long double-lane route starting from Rawat N-5 and ending at Sangjani N-5. The acquisition process will be completed once the funds are transferred to the collector.
As per the report, Capt. (Retd.) Mehmood stated that the project shall take two and a half years to complete. He further told that the intent for this project is to mitigate traffic congestion in Rawalpindi and decentralize of the fruit and vegetable market, the cattle market and truck terminals.
Also included in the projects, shall be an economic corridor that will catalyze the local economic development with the establishment of an industrial zone and various commercial hubs in the region. Furthermore, the project entails the development of Education and health zones that will include a hospital, colleges and universities. Recreational zones shall also be developed, that will include a modern theme park to help boost local and foreign tourism.
This project is getting approvals since Musharraf times. Let us see this time some construction work will commence or not.
It will help to avoid traffic jams in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. I am afraid that project should not be delayed. Small cities of Punjab have their Bypass Road but unfortunately Islamabad and Rawalpindi have been ignored since long.
Everyone with half brain knows the importance of this road. The problem is that we are not even lucky enough to have half brained people in power.
They are all just selfish b….s, working 24/7 for their personal gains.