NHA Revives Dualisation Of Kahuta-Rawalpindi Road.

ISLAMABAD -- The National Highway Authority (NHA), after a delay of over four years in launching the dualisation project of Kahuta-Rawalpindi road on political grounds in the previous government, has once again started the process to secure services of a contractor for the package-II of the project.

The initial procurement process for the said 28.4km long project was initiated in 2017 on the directions of the then prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who was also the elected representative of the same constituency where the project is located.

The project was divided into two packages for its early completion and procurement was started. Two different bidders ZKB and SMADB were declared lowest bidders for the package-I and Package-II of the project respectively but the contract was awarded to SMADB only.

However, after the change of government in 2018, the project along with several others was put on back burner and later it was excluded from the Public Sector Development Programme on political grounds.

One of the lowest bidders, SMADB approached the court to get authorisation for the project from the Planning Commission because it was stopped by the previous government of PTI but it could not get desired results.

Recently after making comeback to the power by Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, the project was once again included into the PSDP 2022-23 by the federal government.

Resultantly, NHA has once again revived the project and luckily SMADB also consented to complete Package-II of the project on the same terms and conditions agreed in 2018 despite massive inflation in market rates.

NHA has given the contract to construct package-II to SMADB on previous rates and it has mobilised the machinery at site as well. On the other side, NHA has started the process...