Rs8.2bn project of access road to Gujrat.

GUJRAT -- The construction work on a 45-kilometre long road connecting Hafizabad and Wazirabad districts with Gujrat -- the newly-created divisional headquarters -- is about to start as the contract has been awarded to a firm.

A sum of Rs8.2 billion will be spent on the project which is about to start right from the under-construction campus of the University of Hafizabad up to Khanki headworks touching the border of Gujrat district from where a 19-kilometre long road is already being built up to Machiana village which is the proposed site for divisional complex of Gujrat.

The existing small road along the Lower Chenab Canal (LCC) bank will be carpeted and widened up to 44 feet to improve the connectivity between Hafizabad district and newly-created Alipur Chattha tehsil of Wazirabad district with the divisional headquarters.

Hafizabad Deputy Commissioner Tauqeer Illyas Cheema told Dawn over telephone that the scheme was near the execution phase after passing through the tendering process. He said the 20-kilometre portion of the road was located in Hafizabad and 25 kilometres in Alipur Chattha tehsil of Wazirabad district and it would improve the road connectivity between three districts of Gujrat division.

He said the distance from Hafizabad to Gujrat divisional complex was around 64 kilometres and carpeting and widening would reduce the travel time between these cities. Moreover, he said, the...