RAHIM YAR KHAN: Poor quality of work on the dualisation of road linking Rahim Yar Khan city with the Multan-Sukkur Motorway (M-5), completed a few months ago, is now falling apart.

The road expansion has so far been done up to Iqbalabad on GT Road. In next phase it will be expanded up to the M-5 interchange.

According to some officials in the Highways, the road was got approved by former provincial finance minister (in PTI government) Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht and a sum of Rs400 million was approved for the 11kms long first phase in 2020-21.

For a long time, its civil work remained halted for unknown reasons and mostly motorists used the Chowk Bahadurpur route to reach the M-5.

In last few months, the road was completed but its three km portion from Thalli Chowk to Muslim Chowk was incomplete. In the month of April last, the road was opened but without any official inauguration.

The highway department is yet to shift or removed different electric poles.

A source in the highway department said some officials concerned demanded their `share’ from the contractor who stopped the work. But when the matter was settled, the contractor after giving the`due share’ to the officials, completed the road in a hurry with substandard material.

After the light rains of July and August, many parts of this road starting crumbling. The soil along the shoulders of the road was washed away while bitumen layer is coming off at several points.

Highways EXEN Shehzad Hashim told Dawn that total amount for replacement or shifting of electric installations has been transfered to the Mepco. But the process of federal departments for doing civil works was different than provincial departments.

“How much time the Mepco will take, I can’t answer.” He said the maintenance of soil work along the shoulders would be started soon. After every rainy season, there was a need to repair the washed-away points, he added.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2023