Grand Eyewash; to inaugurate the incomplete Hyderabad-Karachi Motorway

Even before the inauguration of the first phase of the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M 9) by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif on February 3, 2017, the cruelty is that a hefty toll money with a sizable 400% up in amount was already being collected since a month from the motorists for using the incomplete M 9. As reported, from Rs. 80 to Rs. 800 are presently being charged for travelling in Superhighway. A car which used to pay Rs. 30 at one side, now with the new raise in toll tax is being charged Rs. 140, which is illegitimate and out of proportionate.   

The Sindh government has already expressed its displeasure over hasty and coarse construction of the country' busiest highway calling the development an eyewash and questioned the federal authorities for charging exorbitant toll tax. They also claim the construction a mere facelift  by giving the decade-old Superhighway some repairing work, instead of upgraded to the status of a Motorway. And, their protest is not unjustified because the inauguration by our PM is premature and useless as it doesn't meet with the target set in designs of the M 9.

The scope of the work included the following developments in designs

1. Widening of 136 km 4-lane road into 6-lane facility

2. Construction of 275 km 2-lane service road on either side,

3. Rehabilitation of Existing 4 lanes,

4.Construction of 8 interchanges

5. Improvement of Toll plazas into 24-lane facilities,

6. Introduce weigh stations on new interchanges to check over loading

7.Construction of 2 Service area

8.Construction of 2 Trauma Centres.

Till this date with the exception of only 75 Km widening of 4-lane into 6-lane and one interchange, nothing else have been built yet so there is no reason to celebrate any inauguration ceremony. Furthermore the Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway has been entrusted to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) for the next 25 years on Built-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis. The work on the project began in September 2015 and is required to complete in December 2017 with a total cost of Rs. 32150 million. It looks now difficult that in December 2017 the project would get completed and secondly it is unjustified that the operations are begun by the FWO while the project isn't built yet or in incomplete status, according to BOT basis.  

Their Minister of Transport Syed Nasir Hussain Shah described charging the high toll tax an illegal act, saying their government would protest on this move, which is a money extortion from public. Citing examples of Lahore-Multan or Lahore-Islamabad Motorways, he also said the Karachi-Hyderabad road cannot be called a Motorway. 

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Editorial, Infocus