The federal government has authorised the National Highway Authority (NHA) to build a road (within the limits of Rawalpindi) to connect the newly constructed Margalla Avenue with the Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway (M1).
The distance between Margalla Avenue and M1 is 3.4 km. Rawalpindi receives 1.8 km of the total, while Islamabad receives 1.6 km. The NHA will build the road inside Rawalpindi’s jurisdiction, while the CDA will build the segment within Islamabad’s jurisdiction.
According to sources, the federal government recently authorised the NHA to build the road within Rawalpindi’s city limits. It was decided that the government would fund the NHA project.
The budgetary papers revealed that the government has allocated Rs1.5 billion to the Communication Division in the PSDP 2023-24 for the project. The project will cost Rs3 billion in total. The NHA is a division of the Communication Division.
Moreover, the CDA has already begun work on the segment of the road in the capital, and it just recruited a consultant, Engineering Consultancy Services Punjab (ECSP), to design the route. The CDA’s Development Working Party (DWP) has also authorised the Rs2.6 billion PC-I.
CDA officials said that the consultant is now finishing their assignment and will share a report with the CDA after finalising the detailed engineering in order to move forward with calling tenders. However, they stated?that private land within the CDA’s boundaries had yet to be acquired.
Talking to the media, officials said that?the road was necessary to maximise the benefits of Margalla Avenue because it would not only connect with M-1 but also with the CPEC road.
In 2021, then-prime minister Imran Khan authorised the CDA to create the road within Islamabad’s limits, while the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) was tasked with carrying out the work within its boundaries.