Punjab to verify level of 1,345km roads construction work

Noor Aftab

Islamabad: The Punjab government has decided to verify the level of construction work of newly constructed 1,345km long 161 roads costing Rs15.90 billion in nine divisions through third party to ensure development funds are used to achieve the desired targets, sources told The News here on Wednesday. “Fourteen firms have been pre-qualified, and these have been given five months to complete their verification reports about the road projects. The payment will be made to these firms from the supplementary grant of this programme,” the sources said.

The official data showed that the hired firms would examine the standard of construction of roads and prepare a comprehensive report that would be submitted to the Punjab Chief Minister Monitoring Cell before June next year. “The road projects to be examined have been completed in Bahawalpur Division, Dera Ghazi Khan Division, Faisalabad Division, Gujranwala Division, Lahore Division, Multan Division, Rawalpindi Division, Sahiwal Division and Sargodha Division,” the record revealed.

The firms would examine various features of the roads such as aggregate quality, gradation, water-cement ratio, mix temperature and density in line with the international standards. Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif formally inaugurated Khadim-e-Punjab Rural Roads Programme in April 2015 that is the biggest project of repair and construction of rural roads in the history of Pakistan. During fiscal year 2015-16, this project’s Phase I, II and III were completed under which roads of over 3,500 kilometres were rehabilitated across the province.

Under phase IV, the repair and reconstruction of more than 154 rural roads of 1,455km long was kicked off and the project was completed at a cost of Rs15 billion. Khadim-e-Punjab Rural Roads Programme was designed to improve and modernise road network in rural areas with an aim to facilitate transportation of agricultural produce from farm to market. According to the official record, apart from this programme, Rs.33,837 million had been allocated for the road projects in 2013-14; Rs40,837 million for 2014-15; Rs69,400 million for 2015-16; Rs79,000 million for 2016-17 and Rs90,700 million for 2017-18.