ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Thursday was informed that the National Highway Authority (NHA) has gotten $1.603 billion loan from different international financial institution during the last three years.

The NHA has taken these loans: $130 million from World Bank, $400 million from Asian Development Bank, $162 million from Islamic Development Bank, $174 million from Japan International Cooperation Agency, $492 million from China Exim Bank and Asian Development Bank (Flood Emergency Reconstruction Project FERP-2010) $245 million. These amounts of loans were taken from foreign agencies from March 2008 to till date, the House informed in written.

These loans were borrowed by Economic Affairs Division on behalf of the government of Pakistan and re-payment is also dealt with by the EAD. NHA only deals with project agreements, implementation.

The NHA has not borrowed any loan from national financial institutions, corporate entities for development projects. However, the NHA has recently entered into an agreement with M/s OGDC and MOL for provision of a loan of Rs 700 million for construction of Khushalgarh Bridge, which delayed from multiple reasons, which are: damage to completed works or other delays caused by abnormal rains, flash floods, law and order challenges in remote areas of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, shortage of construction material particularly bitumen.

Other reasons for delay are inadequate allocation of and delay in PSDP releases, revision in scope of work and design changes to cater for local ground realities and demands, as the projects are under implementation, no financial penalties have been imposed.

The Lower House was also informed that total 1130 kilometres roads were constructed by NHA in different provinces, regions in the last three years (2009-11). Regional wise allocation of these roads are Punjab 269 km, Sindh 40 km, Balochistan 500 km, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 244 km, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 43 km, Capital (Islamabad) Territory 4 k, and Gilgit-Baltistan 30 km.

The ministry of communication informed the parliamentarians that it might be relevant to add that road projects are linear in nature and different stages of construction activities such as land acquisition, removal, relocation of utilities, preparation of embankment, sub-grade, sub-base, asphalt wearing course, etc, are undertaken in stages but over a considerable length. Therefore, length of constructed road at any particular time cannot be ascertained in exact terms. Actual work is carried out as per schedule of the contract, which may be scattered, execution of various activities concurrently and completion of road section in final stages.

The NHA’s development projects are complex and linear in nature and normally include, besides road length, other key components such as bridges, flyovers, culverts, interchanges, etc. Moreover, most of the projects consume one, two or even more financial years. As such, provision of year-wise cost incurred on construction of above road lengths is difficult. However, NHA incurred Rs 72.870 billion on development projects during 2009-11. During the year 2009-10, the NHA spent Rs 44.811 billion on construction of roads and Rs 28.059 billion during 2010-11.

To another question, the ministry informed the National Assembly that NHA carried out maintenance activities of Rs 584 million under Annual Maintenance Plans (2008-11) so as to improve the dilapidated condition of Karachi-Hyderabad Superhighway (M-9). For the year 2011-12, an amount of Rs 120.45 million has been allocated for routine and emergency maintenance to keep M-9 in trafficable condition.

The NHA has also planned up-gradation of the existing 4-lane road into a 6-lane Motorway. Efforts are being made to implement this project on Public Private Partnership basis under Build-Operate-Transfer arrangement. Bids received on October 1, 2011 are under evaluation. The concession agreement is expected to be signed in Dec. 2011 for consideration work to commence in Mach. 2012.