The completion of six lanes wide, 392-km Sukkur-Multan Motorway has been confirmed after the National Highway Authority (NHA) on Tuesday provided a substantial completion certification to China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).
The spokesperson of Chinese foreign ministry, Hua Chunying on Thursday regarded the newly-constructed Sukkur-Multan Motorway as a very important breakthrough in economic and social development in Pakistan.
“I believe this project will be very important to the economic and social development in both the countries especially in Pakistan,” Hua Chunying said during her regular briefing.
The motorway, known as M-5 in Pakistan, is a part of the country’s Peshawar-Karachi Motorway and was completed two weeks earlier than the schedule. The M5 was laid out for speeds of up to 120 km/h with a total investment of 2.89 billion U.S. dollars, approx. 90% of the project’s cost was financed through concessionary loans from China, while the remaining 10% was financed by the Government of Pakistan.
National Highway Authority, M-5’s General Manager Muhammad Naseem Arif said during a ceremony held in Multan that the motorway is very impressive in terms of its quality and construction process, adding that the authority firmly worked with the CSCEC and passed a number of hurdles so that they could complete this overwhelming project within designated time frame of 3 years.
Li Ganchun, chief of the M5 project from the CSCEC, admired the security provided by the Pakistani Army, saying that the M5 will help Pakistan to connect its north and south, help in improving the country’s transport condition and escalate socio-economic development in the region along the motorway.
According to the CSCEC, the M5 Motorway Project had created around 29,000 jobs for the locals during the construction. The Chinese constructors also built schools, roads, bridges, wells and water channel for the locals to give them more convenient facilities for daily life.
