The cost of the Leh Expressway fell by Rs110bn as the project renamed

The renamed Leh Expressway saved Rs110bn. The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) changed the name of the Leh Expressway and Flood Channel project to the Rawal Expressway and Flood Channel project after the government changed.

A senior RDA official told  that the construction cost was also cut from Rs200 billion to Rs90 billion, in addition to the name change. He said that the project would be started with money from the government, and that a new PC would be sent to the Planning and Development Department next week to explain this.

He said that under the new plan, the RDA will build a cemented nullah, a trunk sewer, and 17 km of roads on both sides of the nullah, from Kattarian bridge on I.J. Principal Road to Soan bridge on G.T. Road.

He said that the concrete nullah and dual carriageway at New Kattarian would be 55 metres wide, and that the width would gradually grow to 80 metres at Soan Bridge, near the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC).

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Next week, a new PC-I will be sent to the Planning and Development Department: RDA spokesman

Under the new PC-I, no new bridges will be built, but the ones that are already there will be fixed and changed. There would also be no way for people to meet. But he said that the government was working to build a sewerage treatment plant to clean the sewer of Leh Nullah so that flooding wouldn’t happen.

The government of Punjab would give Rs65 billion to build LehNullah and a dual carriageway, and Rs25 billion would be used to buy land.

“A new survey will be started to buy land, since less land will be bought to build the road,” he said.

Before, PC-I for land acquisition and structural compensation worth Rs25 billion was approved by Ecnec at a meeting on December 22, 2021, and administrative approval was given on January 19, 2022.

The official said that commercial buildings and zones were supposed to be built as part of the urban regeneration programme in an old plan.

But the plan to fix up the city has been scrapped, and now only the road will be built.

When contacted, Commissioner Noorul Amin Mengal, who is also the project director, confirmed that the Leh Expressway and Flood Channel had been renamed the Rawal Expressway and Flood Channel and would be built with government money.

He said that 60% of the money would come from the federal government and that 40% would come from the Punjab government.

He said that the project needed to start as soon as possible to ease traffic on Murree Road and other main roads that connect Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

In response to a question, he said that the public-private partnership plan to start the project would be scrapped soon. He also said that on May 11, there will be a public hearing about the environmental impact assessment.

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