Murad orders construction of Malir Expressway from July 2019

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has directed Planning & Development Department to start work on Malir Expressway project from July 2019 so that it could be completed within 2 and half year.

He issued these directives on Monday while presiding over a meeting to review the progress of Malir Expressway here at the Cm House. 

The meeting was attended by Minister Local Government Saeed Ghani, Chairman P&D Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary Local Government Khalid Hyder Shah, Head of PPP Unit Khalid Shaikh and other concerned officers.

The chief minister said that Malir Expressway was most important project to connect Motorway to the city center. He added that it would provide speedy access to key real estate schemes along the route, reducing commuting time from KPT Flyover to Motorway in only 25 minutes. 

“Therefore, it must be started by completing all its formalities latest by July 2019,” he said.

The project includes development of 40.4 km three into three lane Expressway with controlled access along the Malir River starting from Qayumanbad Bridge near DHA bypass and ending at Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) near Kathore via existing Link Road. 

The project would cost around Rs40 billion. Under the cost breakdown, the provincial government would bear 30 percent of the funds and 30 percent arranged through PPP equity and 40 percent loans would be arranged from the banks.

The chief minister was told that in order to ascertain viability of the project, break-even traffic was worked out which was 21,600 daily and yield revenue of Rs2.4 billion in one year. 

The demand risk of the project is equally shared between the developer and the Sindh government through minimum Revenue Guarantee (MRG) structure. The upside [if the traffic exceeds the break-even traffic] and the down side [if the traffic falls below the breakeven traffic] would be equally share (50:50) between the developer and the Sindh government.

The project was placed before the PPP Policy board on Jan 31, 2018 in which the board approved launching of the project under two stage bidding procedure.

 The stage one Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued on February 13, 2018. In response to the stage One RFP, the technical proposals were received from seven national and international bidders.

The project was presented in PPP policy board on Oct 10, 2018. The board was apprised about the revised capital and commercial structure in line with the response of the stage one bidders. The board accorded approval for launch of stage-2 RFP.

The stage two RFP and bidding documents have been completed and RFP would be launched by December 17, 2018. However, the consultants have proposed some changes to the capital and structure which would require approval of the PPP Policy board meeting. The chief minister directed his principal secretary to convene PPP policy board within next few days.