Pakistan's Longest Motorway M5 to Boost Road Transport Sector

Recent opening of M5, Pakistan's longest access-controlled motorway, is a boost for the nation's fast-growing road transport sector. The 6-lane 392 kilometers long M5 motorway is longer than than the 375 kilometers long 6-lane M2 motorway. After M5 opening, the only missing section in planned 1,694 kilometer long 6-lane Peshawar-Karachi motorway is 296-kilometer Sukkur-Hyderabad M6 motorway. Growing network of high-speed motorways is opening up less developed parts of the country for investment, business and tourism. It is aiding agriculture, trade and commerce by moving freight and people faster. Transport sector is part of the service sector which constitutes 54% of the national economy. Service sector includes education, health, financial services, legal services, communication services, hotels, restaurants, recreation, entertainment, retail and wholesale, personal services, etc. It is growing faster than industry (26%) and agriculture (20%) sectors. 



Here's a brief overview of Pakistan's road transport sector as summarized by Karandaz research:

1. The Transport, Logistics and Communications (TLC) sector is estimated to have contributed 13.3% of GDP in 2016-17. Of this, more than 62% was contributed by the road transport sector. In 2014-15 the sector employed 3.1 million people.

2. Most traffic intensive routes are a) Karachi to Peshawar via Hyderabad-Multan-Faisalabad-Rawalpindi; b) Sukkur to Quetta; c) Karachi to Quetta via the RCD Highway; and d) N-5 National Highway segment of Multan-Lahore-Gujranwala-Rawalpindi.

3. Passengers and freight are the primary segments of road transport sector. The fastest growing freight segment is the delivery vans at 7.5% annually, while for the passenger segment it is motor cabs and taxis at 5.9% annually.

4. Road transport grew at an average rate of 6.2% annually between 1991 and 2016, faster than the average GDP growth rate 4.4% during this period. China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is expected to accelerate transport sect or growth with construction of roads and other transport infrastructure.

5. Freight transport sector is highly lucrative with profit margins ranging from 21% for large trucks to 43% for rickshaws. Passenger transport sector is even more lucrative with 30% profit margin for wagons to 50% for luxury buses.

Here's a video of Uch Sharif service area on M5 Sukkur-Musltan Motorway:

https://youtu.be/NC6J8YRAJS4



Views: 847

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 9, 2021 at 8:11pm

Centre removes all bottlenecks to launch Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway project

https://www.dawn.com/news/1621736

The 306-km-long motorway is part of PM’s Rs446bn Sindh development package.

A recent meeting of the Public-Private Partnership Authority chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives Asad Umar took up several matters, including the Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway project which was facing some issues to take off.

With the fresh development, sources said, the project could formally be launched in the current month for further proceedings.

Mr Umer in a tweet said: “Chaired meeting of public private partnership authority today in which we authorised the viability gap fund and transaction structure for the Sukkur Hyderabad motorway project. This motorway will be the biggest project in the Sindh development package announced by the PM.”


Meanwhile, a source privy to the development said that the project envisaged construction of a 306-kilometre-long green-field six-lane access controlled motorway on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis at a cost of Rs191 billion.

“The federal government intends to supplement through capital and operational VGF [Viability Gap Fund], the financial viability and bankability of the project,” the source said citing financial and technical details of the project.

“The project’s construction period is three years including six months financial close and concession period is 25 years. The project is expected to be financed through debt-to-equity ratio of 70:30 after deducting government of Pakistan’s share of capital VGF in the project. The project is expected to provide 17 per cent equity IRR [internal rate of return] to the investor while generating NHA [National Highway Authority] revenue share amounting to Rs127 billion,” he said.

He said that since the project was proposed to be financed on a BOT basis, all the significant risks related to Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway construction and operations including arranging finances would remain with the private sector except change of law and political risk.

It would be the biggest project under the Sindh development package announced by the PM in April, he said and added that its commercial feasibility study along with transaction structure had been approved with high hopes that it would be floated in the market in May 2021.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had on April 16 unveiled a historic development package worth Rs446bn to develop backward areas of the PPP-led Sindh through power supply, irrigation, sports and communication projects.

The package features restoration of 200,000 acres of agricultural land, upgrading of 14 passports offices, construction of the Nai Gaj dam to irrigate around 28,800 acres, 306-kilometre Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway, gas supply to 160 villages and annual 30,000 new power connections in the neglected districts.

Under the package, Rs52bn would be spent on power and gas supply to the deprived areas and Rohri; and the Hyderabad’s railway stations would be upgraded. The federal government has also decided to complete the Nai Gaj dam project after the Sindh government refused to do its part. Similarly, some 100,000 youth in 14 preferred districts would be imparted skill training; and sports facilities would be developed for the benefit of 130,000 youth, 35,000 of them female.

The package would also ensure introduction of 3G and 4G internet services for 3.7 million people and optic fibre connectivity for 1.2m.

An official privy to the details of the Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway design, meanwhile, said the motorway was proposed to be a high-speed toll road facility for efficient and safe transportation, which would start from Hyderabad — end of the Karachi-Hyderabad motorway M-9 — and terminate at Naro Canal — start of the Sukkur-Multan motorway, M-5.

“The project alignment passes through Jamshoro, Tando Adam, Hala, Shahdadpur, Nawabshah, Moro, Dadu, Naushehro Feroze, Mehrabpur, Rasoolpur, Larkana, Khairpur and Sukkur,” he added.

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 10, 2021 at 11:46am

#Pakistan Federal Govt to invite bids for M6 next month. The 306 kilometer 6-Lane #Hyderabad- #Sukkur Motorway to be built on Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis at a cost of Rs. 191.471 billion.#Karachi #Peshawar Motorway. #Lahore #CPEC #infrastructure https://profit.pakistantoday.com.pk/2021/09/09/govt-to-launch-biddi...

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill said on Wednesday that the federal government will open the financial bids for the Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway (M6) in October.

The construction of the Hyderabad- Sukkur motorway at the revised PC-1 cost of Rs191.471 billion has been approved by The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).

The 6-lane motorway project would be constructed on Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis, covering 306 Kilometers.

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin announced during the ECNEC meeting in Islamabad that the project was expected to be completed in 30 months

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 3, 2021 at 6:32pm

#Pakistan #Motorways: 171-Mile 4-Lane M-14 Hakla-Dera Ismail Khan Motorway to open for traffic on Dec 13, 2021. It's part of #CPEC Western Route. https://pakobserver.net/m-14-motorway-to-open-for-traffic-on-dec-13/ via @pakobserver

The Hakla-Dera Ismail Khan Motorway (M-14), a key section of the western alignment of CPEC, will be open to traffic on December 13, said Sajid Hussain, project director of the M-14 motorway, Gwadar Pro reported on Thursday.

A source added that the member motorways of the NHA board had informed the authority’s chairman that the motorway was complete in all respects and could be inaugurated even in early December.

He added that work was underway on construction of service areas. However, the main work has been finished, he said.

The M-14 motorway is the starting section of the western corridor of CPEC. It connects South KP, South Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces with the M-1 motorway, intersecting the eastern alignment of CPEC at Hakla near Islamabad.

The provincial governments of KP and Balochistan are presently purchasing land for the next section of M-14, from Dera Ismail Khan to Zhob district of Balochistan.

However, the federal government has already initiated work on modifying the existing two-lane highway from Dera Ismail Khan to Quetta, capital of Balochistan, into a four-lane expressway.

This will drastically reduce the distance and travel time between northern and southern parts of the country. The corridor will finally lead to Karachi and Gwadar, thus providing for the shortest route of CPEC.

The M-14 motorway has been the most awaited CPEC section in Islamabad, as the expat workers to benefit from this motorway form the largest community in the federal capital. It is very exhausting to travel to Islamabad from southern parts of the country on existing roads.

The M-14 motorway will make our travel and life easy, said Siftain Khan, who hails from Dera Ismail Khan and works as an overseas education consultant in Rawalpindi, the twin city of Islamabad.

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 4, 2022 at 10:28pm

79pc motorways and 68pc highways completed under CPEC


https://pakobserver.net/79pc-motorways-and-68pc-highways-completed-...

As many as 79% work on motorways and 68% on highways have been completed on eastern and western routes of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), according to Gwadar Pro.Both the Western and Eastern alignments will connect Khunjerab Pass to Gwadar.

The common alignment for all the three eastern, western and central routes including 790 km road from Khunjerab to Burhan and 193 km road from Hoshab to Gwadar has been completed already.

Burhan will be at the intersection of the Eastern and Western Alignment.

According to the officials in the Ministry of Communication, the distance of the Eastern route starting from Islamabad to Karachi is 1,419 km, out of which 79% work on motorways has been completed whereas 21% is left which is 306 km Sukkur Hyderabad motorway.This is the only patch left in the eastern route of CPEC. Sukkur Hyderabad motorway is expected to be complete in the next 30 months. The company which won the tender has already been allowed to start its construction.

On the other hand, the western route of CPEC starts from Islamabad to D. I Khan, then D. I Khan to Quetta, and from Quetta to Gwadar. Excluding the common alignment, the total length of this route is 1,714 km. Out of which 68% has been completed while 32% is under construction.

The Islamabad to D I khan motorway has been completed recently. The very important link of the western route of CPEC is D.I khan to Zoub and Quetta which is 540 km patch.

Comment by Riaz Haq on January 18, 2022 at 10:45am

List of Motorways in Pakistan

https://www.incpak.com/info/motorways-in-pakistan/



1. M1 Motorway
The M1 Motorway (also known as the Peshawar to Islamabad Motorway) was built in the year 2007, while many of the interchanges were added to the project in later years. The M1 Motorway is 155KM long and it has six lanes.

2. M2 Motorway
The M2 Motorway was the first one ever built in Pakistan connecting the country’s capital Islamabad to Lahore, which is the Provincial Capital of Punjab. The M2 is a six-lane and 367KM long Motorway.

3. M3 Motorway
The M3 Motorway was completed in 2019. It is a six-lane Motorway spanning the length of 230KM from Lahore to Abdul Hakeem.

4. M4 Motorway
The construction for this Motorway began in 2009 and completed in 2019. The M4 Motorway has four to six lanes throughout the length of 309KM from Pindi Bhattian to Multan.

5. M5 Motorway
The Multan to Sukkur Motorway (formally known as M5 Motorway) was built in 2019. It is 392KM long and has six lanes.

6. M6 Motorway
The Sukkur to Hyderabad Motorway (M6) is currently under construction and not yet operational. The M6 Motorway will have six lanes over a length of 306KM.

7. M7 Motorway
The M7 Motorway is going to follow the route of Dadu to Hub and cover an area of 270KM. The project is still pending and construction is yet to begin.

8. M8 Motorway
The M8 Motorway (formally known as M8 Motorway) is the longest one in Pakistan at 892KM from Ratodero to Gwadar. The Motorway is partially operational and the remaining road is currently under construction.

9. M9 Motorway
The M9 Motorway (Hyderabad to Karachi) is a 136KM long six-lane Motorway which has been operational since 1028. The Motorway is more commonly as Super Highway.

10. M10 Motorway
This M10 Motorway is also known as the Karachi Northern Bypass and covers a distance of 57KM. The two lane Motorway was built in 2007 and there are currently plans to expand it to four-lanes.

11. M11 Motorway
The Lahore to Sialkot or M9 Motorway was built in 2020 and covers a distance of 103KM with four lanes.

12. M12 Motorway
The M12 Motorway (also known as Sialkot to Kharian Motorway) is currently under construction and expected to be completed by 2023. This is going to be a four lane Motorway.

13. M13 Motorway
The M12 Motorway is a planned project from Kharian to Rawalpindi. It is cover a distance of 117KM and have four lanes. The construction is expected to start somewhere around 2023.

14. M14 Motorway
The M14 Motorway (also known as Islamabad to Dera Ismail Khan Motorway) was built in 2021 and covers an area of 285KM. This is a six-lane Motorway which is also called Hakla-Yarik Highway.

15. M15 Motorway
The M15 Motorway is also known as the Hazara Motorway and covers a distance of 180KM from Hasan Abdal to Thakot. The Motorway will have six, four, or two planes depending on different points throughout the road.

16. M16 Motorway
The Swabi to Chakdara Motorway (known as M16 Motorway) was built in 2020 and covers an area of 160KM. It is a four lane Motorway, which is also known as Swat Motorway
Comment by Riaz Haq on January 29, 2022 at 8:01am

For a long time we have known that improved transport accessibility leads to more opportunities and better lives.

ANDREW DABALENSHOMIK MEHNDIRATTA|JANUARY 24, 2022

https://blogs.worldbank.org/transport/knowledge-action-new-way-maxi...

Accessibility describes how easy (or difficult) it is for people to reach services and opportunities. When you look at the data, significant accessibility gaps persist around the world. Globally 51% of individuals living in low-income countries reside within an hour of a city compared to 91% of individuals in high-income countries. This limited access to urban centers hinders rural populations from accessing services and opportunities, including healthcare, education, jobs, and markets. Gender plays an important role as well: as these findings from Pakistan illustrate, women typically must cover greater distances to reach basic services. Even for people living in cities, accessibility may vary depending on the availability of public transport, the impact of traffic congestion.

Lack of access is systematically linked to inferior development outcomes, even more so if motorized transport is not available. The inability to travel to healthcare facilities, for instance, has been associated with increased mortality and morbidity from treatable conditions. Conversely, improved access is often synonymous with improved development outcomes. For example, women with access to roads in Pakistan are twice more likely (14% vs 28%) to go to pre-natal consultations. In rural Morocco, girls’ enrollment in primary schools increased from 17% to 54% when their access to roads improved.

Looking particularly at rural roads investments, the construction of a new road can lead to a chain of positive impacts. When a rural community gets connected to the road network, people who could not reach healthcare, schools, or other essential services before are suddenly able to do so. Workers can access more and better jobs. Farmers can sell their products in more distant markets. But these outcomes can only materialize if rural road projects are carefully planned and prioritized. Also, while investments in road networks are often a critical first step toward enhancing accessibility, they should be integrated into a broader investment package targeting social and technological development overall.

However, transforming this knowledge into action had been hard to operationalize. Lack of data regarding the transport network, opportunities, limited computing power to calculate travel times in large areas and lack of consistent framework had made it hard for us to take this academic research into an operational reality. We needed to understand exactly which transport projects will have the highest impact on accessibility? How would this accessibility transform into household welfare? And how do we create tools to inform planning and investment decisions?

To address these questions, the World Bank’s Transport and Poverty and Equity teams jointly developed a new framework that relies on high-resolution mapping and other sophisticated analytical tools to provide a more granular view of how rural road infrastructure can benefit communities.

We are now able to deploy all that knowledge into operational action, by developing an analytical framework that highlights spatial disparities in access to services and opportunities, calculates the expected gains in accessibility from investments into road infrastructure and thereby informs the placement of transport investments throughout the region.

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 12, 2022 at 9:08pm

CPEC project keeps children fed


https://tribune.com.pk/story/2343158/cpec-project-keeps-children-fed

Hundreds of children belonging to lessprivileged families in the scenic Kaghan Valley are being fed on a daily basis at the under-construction Suki Kinari hydropower project along the Kunhar River.

The Suki Kinari dam project, one of the key initiatives of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is estimated to generate 884 megawatts of electricity, which will benefit 13 million households.

According to Mari Petroleum, around 6,000 locals are already involved in the construction work, and once complete, it will create hundreds of more jobs. It is a unique project for which a 30km long tunnel will be dug through the mountains and from where the water will be diverted to the power turbines with the help of pipes.

Launched in 2017, 83% of the work of Suki Kanari Energy Project has been completed. It is hoped that this project will be added to the national grid next year, increasing Pakistan's hydropower reserves by nine percent.

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 27, 2022 at 7:36pm

Since the 1990s, the federal and provincial governments in Pakistan have sought to encourage private sector participation in development projects and in the provision of public infrastructure and related services in Pakistan. Beginning in the 2000s, several legal and regulatory changes have been made to expand the use of public–private partnerships.

https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3df8a24e-6658-405c-a...

As of 2020, the federal government and all four provincial governments have passed PPP-specific legislation, formalising and enabling the regime, including by creating independent statutory bodies to facilitate, support and promote PPPs. At the federal level, the Public Private Partnership Authority (the PPP Authority) was set up in 2017 under the Public Private Partnership Authority Act, No. VIII of 2017 (the 2017 PPP Act). The PPP Authority replaced the Infrastructure Project Development Facility (IPDF), formed by the federal government in 2006 to facilitate PPPs. The 2017 PPP Act was subsequently amended through the Public Private Partnership Authority (Amendment) Act, 2021 (the 2021 Amendment Act), to create a more facilitative PPP regulatory framework and make it more amenable to private investment in development projects.

Traditionally, PPPs in Pakistan have been particularly common in the energy, power generation and transportation sectors. In fiscal year 2019–2020, 17 infrastructure projects involving private investment reached financial closure.2 The power sector made up the largest investment share with a total investment amount of US$5 billion.3 In recent years, though, the government has expressed a commitment to using PPPs in many more sectors including aviation, technology, healthcare, tourism and others. In late 2019, the Prime Minister approved a development plan, expected to run from fiscal years 2020 to 2023, termed the Public Sector Development Programme Plus (PSDP+) initiative, firmly orienting the government towards PPPs across sectors.4

In addition to the federal initiative, each of the four provinces – Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – has its own specific roster of projects and policies to promote PPPs. In accordance with the Constitution, PPPs in the areas enumerated in the Federal Legislative List fall within the domain of the federal government, while other areas generally fall under the domain of the provinces. This chapter focuses on the federal regime as exemplary of other models, but where relevant, also references the provincial regimes.

The year in review

According to information available on the PPP Authority's official website, at the federal level, 47 PPP projects are in the pipeline across sectors out of the 105 PSDP+ portfolio federal projects.5 Additionally, the PPP Authority lists a number of 'early harvest' projects that it is assisting with, including:

the construction of the Sukkur Hyderabad Motorway (expected cost around US$1.2 billion);
the construction of the Sialkot Kharian Motorway (expected cost around US$225 million);
the construction of a teaching and research hospital;
the construction of an innovations ecosystem (science and technology park);
the conversion of a guesthouse located in Lahore (the provincial capital of Punjab province) into a hotel;
the creation of a mass transit facility in a major city, the Karachi Circular Railway; and
the modernisation of the current Karachi–Pipri Rail Track.6
Previous projects finalised by the IPDF include:

the overlay and modernisation of the Lahore Islamabad Motorway (investment of US$460 million), which has been in operation since 2016;
the construction of the Lahore Sialkot Motorway (investment of US$438 million), which is in operation now;
the conversion of an existing four-lane super highway into a six-lane Karachi Hyderabad highway (investment of US$430 million), which has been in operation since 2017; and
the construction of the Habibabad Flyover (investment of US$8 million), which has been in operation since 2014.7

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 27, 2022 at 7:37pm

Pakistan - Operational Design for the Project Development Fund and for the Viability Gap Fund

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/12391


This final report is the fifth deliverable for the World Bank funded project 'operational design for the project development fund and for the viability gap fund'. Taking into account feedback and further consideration of issues rose in the previous Reports, it aims to: provide high level recommendations on the overall Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework in Pakistan, recognizing international best practice but also taking into account the specific Pakistan context and the challenges faced their-in; provide the analysis of the project pipeline for PPP projects in Pakistan, on the basis of consultations undertaken in Islamabad in May 2009; and design possible structures for the Project Development Fund (PDF) and for the Viability Gap Fund (VGF), that is informed by the current local enabling environment for PPPs, including the institutional capabilities and the existing pipeline of PPP projects. This final report incorporates feedback from the World Bank and the Government of Pakistan on each of the above-listed issues, which were set out and discussed in details in previous reports.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 16, 2022 at 5:52pm

Asad Mahmood, the Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services, announced on Friday afternoon that the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway (M-6) of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be completed as soon as possible.

https://www.economy.pk/sukkur-hyderabad-motorway-project-to-get-pri...

During his visit to the National Highway Authority (NHA) headquarters, the minister revealed this in a meeting with Federal Minister for Water Resources Syed Khursheed Shah.

The federal ministers were informed of the ongoing building projects across the nation, particularly in Sindh, by Federal Secretary for Communications Zafar Hasan and NHA Chairman Captain (Retd) Muhammad Khurram Agha. Asad Mahmood, the Minister for Communications and Postal Services, told his cabinet colleague Khursheed Shah and the people of Sindh that the ongoing motorway projects will be completed quickly.

Asad Mahmood stated that the required documents had been completed and that construction on the 306-kilometer motorway will begin soon. The projected Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway will be 306 kilometers long.

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