PESHAWAR: A high level public-private partnership committee with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak in chair okayed the Swat Motorway and agreed in principle to raise a separate police force for this mega project for safety of passengers.
The force would also be deployed on other roads of Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority. It merits to mention here that Public-Private Partnership Committee is the supreme body for the decision making in this regard.
The meeting held at Chief Minister House Peshawar was attended by Additional Chief Secretary also holding the additional charge of Chief Secretary, Azam Khan, administrative secretaries and others.
The meeting was told that Swat Motorway was a Flag-ship project, and was
81 KM long with two tunnels each one Kilometer and the construction works was being taken in hand from both ends of the Swat Motorway.
The Frontier Works Organization was mobilizing four heavy machines for drilling.
The DG FWO Maj. Gen Muhammad Afzal in a meeting had given assurance for the completion of Swat Motorway in time.
The Chief Minister appreciated his team for formalizing the agreed point of the agreement. The meeting was also informed about the survey and mobility of machinery by FWO for putting on ground the execution on the project.
Addressing the participants, the Chief Minister said that Swat Motorway was of prime importance in opening of entire northern parts of the province and integrating it to the whole of the country.
It is a gigantic project costing Rs 40 billion would be completed in the record time, he added. He directed to facilitate FWO in the smooth undertaking of the project and at the same time he also asked the departments concerned to be prepared for this project.
Pervez Khattak said that Swat Motorway would become the main artery of road communication between Northern Areas of the province with the M-I at Karnal Sher Khan Interchange. It will mark a new era of development and prosperity of the province.
The Chief Minister directed to put all safety nets and wished to accelerate work on this project for timely completion.
The Chief Minister expressed his optimism that Swat motorway would would redefine the future outlook of the province in terms of enhanced trade and commerce, industrialization, opening the entire northern belt of the province to the rest of the country.
The confluence of M1 and the Swat Motorway would be the future trade centre that will generate a lot of resources and would give jobs to the jobless, he added.
The chief minister had recently directed to acquire land at each interchange for the allied facilities and commercial activities in the six interchanges of the Swat Motorway. He had directed for land procurement for future expansion including greenery, beautification, plantation at the interchanges of the projects.
