ISLAMABAD - The 392-kilometre Sukkur-Multan section of Peshawar-Karachi Motorway offered job opportunities to over 23000 residents living along the motorway and most of them are those who depended on Heaven for food but now converted to vocational workers.
“The priority was being given to Pakistani People at the time of employment so that the proportion of Chinese staff to Pakistani staff reached 1 to 15.6,” a Chinese official of China State Construction Company Limited (CSCEC) responsible for construction of the motorway told APP.
“At present, about 1500 Chinese while 23000 Pakistani workers and officers were working in this project.”
The official said except state of the art machinery that was imported from China, all other material used for the project including steel, cement, soil, crush stones and diesel, etc., was being procured from local resources. Meanwhile General Manager of the project, Arbab Ali said that work on the project was in process which was about 15 percent ahead of time. He informed that the project which was a part of CPEC was likely to be opened for traffic by May next year, two months ahead of the given schedule of August 04, 2019.
“At present 69 percent of total work has been completed, among them 392 kilometer roadbed and culvert passage, and other structures are about to be competed (99%). Up to now, all the bridges are near completion, and asphalt pavement works are advancing at full speed, and the building construction and ancillary works also being implemented actively,” he said.
He informed that on May 26 this year, a 33km section (Multan-Shujaabad) in the north end of the project was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, however it could not be opened to traffic due to incomplete work of the section. “This section will be opened to traffic by March next year.”
Pakistan’s PKM project starts from Karachi via Hyderabad, Sukkur, Multan, Islamabad, Lahore and other cities ends in Peshawar with a total length of 1,152 kilometers. Sukkur-Multan has a design speed of 120 km per hour, and it is a two-way six-lane road with a contractual value of USD 2.889 billion (excluding $180 million tax exemption).
The Export-Import Bank of China provides loan support, and China State Construction Company Limited (CSCEC) is responsible for construction on Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) basis. With a contract period of 36 months (including design period of four months), the project officially started on August 5, 2016.