LAHORE: Work on the Lahore Ring Road’s Southern Loop-3 (SL-3) has been launched, with the contractor mobilising the machinery and manpower to the site starting from the Adda Plot, Raiwind Road.

The Punjab finance department has released Rs6 billion to the Lahore Ring Road Authority (LRRA) and remaining funds would be released in phases over the next six months, an official source told Dawn on Friday.

According to the official, the Rs17.798 billion ring road’s SL-3 project will have the biggest ever interchange in Punjab, passing over Link Canal Road and Multan Road and finally ending 500 meters ahead of Multan Road.

The project will connect to Ring Road SL-4, which will be built after the completion of SL-3, subject to approval and availability of funds.

The Punjab government had decided to launch construction of the SL-3 in June after the cabinet approved the Rs17.798 billion PC-I. The project had been stuck in litigation since 2016 due to the alleged intervention of a “powerful” real estate tycoon. The SL-3 starts from Adda Plot on Raiwind Road and ends at Maraka on Multan Road, passing through and linking Bahria Town and other residential localities.

Finance dept releases Rs6bn to LRRA

Earlier, it was to be constructed at Rs10 billion under the public-private-partnership mode on the build, operate and transfer basis and the project cost was supposed to be recovered by the contractors through toll from motorists within 25 years. The first contract of the project was awarded to a leading private firm for Rs8bn.

The LRRA in August 2016 tried to start work through Bahria Town but the housing scheme’s administration and others obtained a stay order even though a compensation of around Rs550 million had been deposited with the court’s treasury as per its directions. In 2017, the court vacated the stay order. However, the aggrieved parties again got a stay by filing an intra-court appeal. The stay was again vacated in 2018.

In October 2018, a joint team of the LRRA, city district administration and police retrieved the land from the housing scheme, paving the way for construction work.

The team, during this major and days long operation demolished 73 houses, four plazas and other buildings. In 2018, when the authority was about to start construction, the government decided to restart the bidding process which was completed in 2019 and the project was awarded to the National Logistics Cell for Rs10 billion.

An agreement was also signed on June 13. However, the court again granted a stay on June 26, 2020, and the matter was resolved on March 30, 2021, enabling the authority to start the work. But the LRRA could not do so. The SL-3 is an 8km long six-lane dual carriageway having two interchanges, seven flyovers (bridges), four service road bridges (single span), and three vehicular subways.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2023