Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Sunday said that work on dualisation of the Indus Highway was going on at a snail’s pace though the provincial government had already paid 50 percent of the estimated cost of the project to the federal government.
He said this while talking to Senate Chairman Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, who called on him along with Ahmed Khan Baloch, Khuda Babar and Mirza Mohammad Afridi at the CM’s House.
Sanjrani told the chief minister that he was learning through the media about the growing number of road accidents on the Indus Highway, which were claiming innocent lives every day. On this, Murad said that with his personal efforts the project of dualisation of the Indus Highway from Jamshoro to Sehwan (about 108km) was approved in 2017, with a cost of Rs 14 billion. He said the then federal government, through the National Highway Authority (NHA), launched the project, while the provincial government had shared Rs 7 billion as 50 percent of its share of the total cost. “We released Rs 7 billion in April 2017 to start the project, but the pace of work on the road is disappointing,” he said and added that the project was scheduled to be completed within 18 months.
The chief minister said that he had offered the federal government to give Rs 7 billion back to the provincial government, besides the other half of the total cost, and the provincial government would complete the project on war footings. He said that Federal Minister for Communication Murad Saeed later assured him that work on the project would be accelerated, but still the result was not encouraging. Discussing the Nai Gaj Dam, the chief minister said it was originally a Rs 48 billion project lunched by the federal government, but due to delay in its completion its cost had increased to Rs60 billion. “We have already requested the federal government to complete it so that the lands in the area irrigated,” he told the chairman. Sanjrani said he would take up the grievances of the provincial government with the Senate committee and get those projects completed. The Senate chairman congratulated the chief minister on launching of first-ever indigenous, Thar coal power project. At this, the chief minister invited him and his senators to visit Thar and see the development efforts of the provincial government.
The chairman accepted the invitation and said he would lead a delegation of senators from other provinces and visit Thar by road.
“We have constructed excellent roads from Karachi to Thatta and then to Badin, and up to Thar,” the chief minister said, and added that the provincial government had constructed two bridges on Indus River in Thatta and Sujawal districts, roads and an airport in Islamkot, besides connecting Thar with internal roads. “Now, Thar gives a look of a well-developed district,” he said.
