NHA eyes public-private partnership model for roads

Dawn reported that the National Highway Authority, the Privatisation Commission and the Public-Private Partnership Authority reviewed four proposed road schemes for possible private-sector financing. At a meeting co-led by Communications Minister Abdul Aleem Khan and Privatisation Adviser Muhammad Ali, officials considered the commercial prospects and financial viability of the options.

The proposals include a 169-kilometre stretch of the M-10 Motorway, the Mansehra-Naran-Jhal Khand-Chilas Motorway, Guru Nanak Expressway and an extension of the Murree Expressway into Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Khan asked NHA officials to prepare a business plan and develop projects suitable for market participation, citing the Sialkot-Kharian Motorway as an existing PPP example. He also set out a goal of making NHA financially independent, with a value of Rs500bn to Rs1,000bn, reducing its dependence on federal PSDP funding.