ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan: The ground breaking ceremony the Hazara Motorway, a part of Pakistan China Economic Corridor agreement, was performed on Saturday by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Havelian.
The 60-km long four-lane fenced expressway will cost Rs33 billion, and it will reduce the drive time from Islamabad to Havelian to just 30 minutes in addition to providing road to the Havelian Dry Port project.
The areas which will be linked to Motorway include Kohistan, Batagram, Mansehra, Abbottabad and Haripur.
The project is a translation of the prime minister’s commitment to expand the networks of motorways to build a progressive Pakistan. It will create hundreds of thousands of employment opportunities, possibilities of new business ideas, and socio-economic uplift of the whole region.
Earlier, the prime minister was briefed on the project by the National Highway Authority (NHA) Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar.
On arrival, the prime minister was welcomed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership including Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousuf, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mehtab Ahmad Khan, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Retd Capt Safdar.
In a statement, the federal religious affairs minister Sardar Muhammad Yousuf earlier said that the Hazara Motorway project will usher in a new era of economic development in the country.
The minister said that the Hazara Motorway project will be completed in 16 months on the special instructions of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He said that a long-standing demand of the people of the area will be fulfilled by executing the project.
