Prime Minister Imran Khan finally performed the ground breaking of much awaited Rawalpindi Ring Road project which is expected to be completed at a cost of Rs 22.8 billion.
This will have six lanes and four interchanges.The Ring Road project, known as missing link of Rawalpindi, has been in cold storage for the last 17 years.
Previous government launched it with a loan from the Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank of China.
The bank had declared the project viable and agreed to provide the loan.However, when work was about to commence, a major scandal of corruption, misuse of authority and conflict of interest emerged which caused further delay in its execution.
Anyway the Punjab government now has decided to construct the project under the 2017 alignment, under which, the road will be constructed from N-5 GT Road Rawat-Banth Mor to Thalian Interchange (Motorway-2).
The project has immense importance to ease the flow of traffic in Rawalpindi and Islamabad besides given its location, it will also generate immense economic activity, as it will help industrial materials and freights in moving to and from the CPEC route.
This connection also explains the development of new industrial zones, warehouses, and dry ports along the ring road economic corridor.
As the contract has been awarded to Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), we are confident that the road project will be completed within given timeframe while making no compromise on its quality.
Separately it has been reported that a Chinese delegation has also expressed interest in the Nullah Leh expressway and flood channel project.
This project is also facing long delays and the authorities concerned must speed work to remove all hurdles in the way of its execution which will not only help address the issue of flash flooding in Nullah during monsoon season but also significantly ease traffic woes of two cities as it will provide a separate link to commuters moving between Rawalpindi and Islamabad on daily basis.
Such projects will further improve landscape of two cities.
