DERA GHAZI KHAN-Amidst unfulfilled promises made by officialdom on various occasions, millions of local people have been suffering hardships for decades due to the state of dilapidation and decrepitude of the Muzaffargarh-Dera Ghazi Khan carriageway.
Furthermore, the road is shabby, tatty, encroached and plagued with heavy traffic generated by the oil business region.
Local officialdom including MNA Abdul Kareem and MPA Syed Aleem Shah, on 10 March 2016’; Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Sardar Awais Khan Leghari on 22 June-2016, and Commissioner Muhammad Yasrib on 7 April 2015 had promised that the construction of the road would be started in a few months. However, all the statements proved to be baseless and fake.
Talking to The Nation, NHA DG Khan Deputy Director Hafeez Khan Buzdar said that as per directives of Prime Minister Pakistan, the NHA had planned the upgradation of Multan- Muzaffargarh-DG Khan section of N-70 stretching on 70.35km at a cost of Rs9.3 billion through Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) process.
Hafeez added it consists of three sections, Dera Ghazi Khan-Muzaffargarh (46.75 km), Muzaffargarh Bypass (13.9 Km) and Muzaffargah-Multan (9.7Km). Two out of three sections have been completed while work at Dera Ghazi Khan-Muzaffargarh section is pending.
He said dualization of the pending section along with construction of new toll plazas and one new bridge of 1.038 km length on Indus River at Ghazi Ghat location will be started from January-2017 by approved contractor M/S Mishal Sania JV (SARCO).
To a question, he said the upgradation will facilitate north-south freight traffic and at the same time open up an east-west economic corridor. It starts at DG Khan, crosses the River Indus at Ghazi Ghat Bridge, passes through the towns of Karamdad Qureshi, Godar and Baseera and ends before Muzaffargarh Bypass.