Work on Simly Dam Road to be initiated soon

Islamabad : A plan is underway for rehabilitation and maintenance work of the damaged portion of the Simly Dam Road at the cost of Rs74,954,836.

According to the details, the construction work is going to start after Eid and the contractor is bound to complete this project within stipulated time period. Simly Dam Road is a single road where about 50,000 vehicles pass every day. It needs proper underground water drainage pipes and this road also needs to be widened and doubled. Talking about this project, an official of the civic agency has said “It is highly difficult to widen right of way of this road as structures have been built and if they plan to do it then they will have to pay billions of rupees against the built-up property and land.”

The official data showed that a commission constituted by the federal government in 2020 had proposed to acquire land to make all revenue roads 100 feet wide under revised Islamabad’s Master Plan. He said, “An operation against 146 illegal projects was launched on Simly Dam Road to reclaim the government land. But there were also other projects that were initiated after formal approval from the concerned authorities.”

The civic agency has imposed ban on construction activities along all revenue routes including Simly Dam Road to avoid traffic congestion. The revenue roads in Islamabad are typically 20 to 30 feet wide, and they are becoming more congested due to the growing number of housing societies and construction projects. The official said, “We had two options-one was to acquire land after paying billions of rupees to expand the road by 100 feet and the second was to impose ban on construction activities within 50 feet of these routes.”