SC takes notice of M-9 substandard construction

KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday took notice over substandard construction of Karachi-Hyderabad M-9 project and performance of National Highway Authority over lack of maintenance of Sehwan-Jamshoro road leading to a large number of traffic accidents.

Hearing the NHA's appeal against Sindh High Court’s judgment that ordered up-gradation of road and removal of toll tax, the SC’s three member bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed observed that the highway authority should be ashamed of the poor standards of M-9 project.

The residents of Jamshoro submitted that due to lack of maintenance and defective road design of the Indus highway linking Jamshoro and Sehwan over 400 people have been died in different traffic accident in the last couple of years while hundreds of people have been injured. The court asked Chairman NHA Jawad Rafiq as to why the defects of the road designs were not been removed in the last several years. The court also took exception over the construction standards of M-9 and inquired from the Chairman NHA what kind of motorway has been constructed where vehicles crawl. The court observed that entire NHA is riddled with corruption. The bench also observed that the NHA did nothing to protect the lives of citizens who died due to accidents, inquiring as if the NHA is waiting for a big eventuality.

The court warned the Chairman NHA and the DIG of motorway police that cases would be registered against them if anymore people died due to accidents in Sehwan-Jamshoro road with direction to pay monetary compensation to the legal heirs of the victims. The Chairman NHA said the authority is working to remove the defects of the road and assured that steps would be taken for avoiding road accidents and ensuing safety of the people. The court observed that since the issue pertains to the lives of the citizen, necessary arrangements are required to be taken on emergent basis. The court directed the Chairman National Highway Authority to submit interim report about steps taken to remove defects on the Sehwan-Jamshoro road, safe traffic flow and safety measures at the Indus highway that links Sehwan with Jamshoro.