Elevated Expressway Project Set to Take Off in Months

* Expressway from The Mall to Faizabad will have six lanes

* PC-II forwarded to Punjab govt

* Construction will be done in three phases

RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) is set to take off Rs 5.508 billion project to build Elevated Expressway from The Mall to Faizabad in the next few months.RDA officials told Daily Times on Monday that the authority had submitted PC-II of the project to the Punjab Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department a few days ago.

They said Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) would forward the PC-II to the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) for approval since its cost had exceeded Rs 200 million. Having got the project approved, the RDA would conduct topographic survey and design the Elevated Expressway within two or three months since it had completed homework for it, they said.

They said the project aimed to ease traffic flow on Murree Road which had been growing fast as the number of registered vehicles in Rawalpindi and Islamabad had touched the figure of 600,000 and 100,000 vehicles used Murree Road on daily basis. The officials said a recent study had showed that the expressway would save 60,000 vehicles, carrying about 200,000 commuters usually, from risks of accidents.

According to the plan, the Elevated Expressway will run above Murree Road from The Mall to Faizabad. It will go to Pakistan Secretariat via Faizabad Interchange, Zero Point Interchange, Aabpara and Constitution Avenue. The expressway will have six lanes and interchanges for it will be constructed at Marir Chowk, Chandani Chowk, 6th Road and Shamsabad.

After its completion, motorists will be able to cover around 25 km distance in less than 15 minutes.A stretch from The Mall to Marir Chowk would be built in the first phase, from Marir Chowk to Chandani Chowk in the second and from Chandani Chowk to Faizabad in the third, said the officials.

Construction of the expressway from Marir Chowk to Chandani Chowk would take 36 months expectedly while the remaining work would be completed in 46 months, they said.