Rs793 million to be spent on Rawalpindi district

Rawalpindi
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sajid Zafar Wednesday unveiled Khadim-e-Aala Rural Roads Programme for Rawalpindi district. Under the project, 103 kilometres long 11 roads will be constructed in the district with the estimated cost of Rs 793 million.
Briefing journalists here on Wednesday Sajid Zafar said that a comprehensive programme for constructing 2,000 kilometres long roads has been started with special initiative of Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif. Under this programme, roads in rural areas will be rehabilitated, repaired and constructed throughout the province.
He informed about the mechanism for selecting need-based road construction projects and details about their execution. He said that out of 11 roads 3 will be completed by the end of current fiscal year while remaining roads will be completed within next fiscal year. He said all farm-to-market roads and major provincial roads have been merged into Khadim-e-Aala Rural Roads Programme which has been designed in accordance with the importance and location of rural areas.
In reply to a question, Sajid Zafar said that the width of all approved roads will be 12 feet and these roads would provide better communication facilities to the people living in rural areas to market their agricultural inputs to big markets. In reply to another question about observance of transparency in rural road construction projects, the DCO informed that Third Party Validation has been incorporated to ensure quality construction.
Giving details about the roads to be constructed in Rawalpindi, he said that a 13.50-km long carpeted road from Dheri Morr to Karar via Paryal Miyal, will be completed with the estimated cost of Rs102.442 million. Similarly, Rs96.598.6million will be spent on the construction and widening of 14.50 km long road from Renotra Chowk to Karahi via Mohata Mohra. For the construction of 16.60 km long road from Jatha Hathial to Kahna via Nakrali will be completed at the cost of Rs115.496 million. The 4.30 km long road from Shahpur to Khurram Paracha will be completed at the cost of Rs35.602 million. For the construction of 6 km long road from Qazian Jabbar to Bewal via Manjotha Road Rs49.414 million have been earmarked. For the construction of 8.44 km long road from Lehtrar Road to Behi Chaka via Bugga Union Council Lehtrar Rs81.787 million will be spent. For the construction of 2.50 km long road from Sahng Ada Main (Pir Mahal ) Road to Dadrani UC Sahng, Rs27.124 million have been earmarked. 9.20 km long road from Missa Kaswal to Gulyana will be completed at the cost of Rs59.338 million. For the construction of 2 km long road from Girja Road to the main Chakra Road Rs22.028 million have been earmarked. For the construction of 5.79 km long road from Choa Kalsa to Sakrana Rs57.725 million will be spent. And Rs146.362 million have been earmarked for the construction of 20 km long Kotli Golehragali Road via Bann.
He said that up to 5 km long roads will be completed in three month timeframe while over 5 km long road will be completed in six months.
He also said that after completion of Metro Bus Project (MBP), will start construction of city roads at the cost of Rs1billion, which provided Punjab government every year. He urged media to keep eye on the pace of progress and quality construction while report any irregularity and sub standard material.
Executive Engineer (XEN) Roads Shoukat Mehmood during media briefing said that construction work of roads will be completed in the given timeframe at any cost. “We will not give contract to contractors they are already ‘black list’,” he warned.