Southern Bypass road project gets approval

Lahore: Punjab government has approved the construction of Southern Bypass from Ferozepur Road to College Road (old Ring Road) which will be completed at an estimated cost of Rs 2.8 billion.

An official from Planning and Development (P&D) department said, the road is a missing link of Southern Bypass starting from Canal Bank at Thokar Niazbaig to Ferozepur Road at a few kilometers from the General Hospital.

A section of about seven kilometers from Canal Bank to College Road has already been constructed while the remaining seven kilometers portion of the road will be constructed in two packages: Package-I starting from Ferozepur Road to Railway Line and Package-II starting from Railway Line to College Road.

The official said that the project was reviewed last month in pre-PDWP (Provincial Development Working Party) of the Planning and Development Department wherein it was observed that the proposed road (old Ring Road alignment) starting from College Road involves a lot of structures and 'abadies' and would involve huge land acquisition and compensation of Rs 1.7 billion against the construction cost of Rs 768 million and resettlement issues which can be avoided by adopting alternate routes.

He said it was decided that PC-II should be submitted first for feasibility study rather than submitting PC-I, keeping in view alignment of the on-going project of Lahore Ring Road and different options available for project.

The PC-I for the most viable/feasible option after detailed designing and construction will be submitted afterwards. According to deputy director TEPA, the two feasibilities; one through World Bank and the other with assistance of Japan have already been carried out and all the options had been considered. In the light of the reports, it was observed that the alignment was the most feasible route as no other alignment is feasible as per the Master Plan of Lahore city.