PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is considering a proposal of Rs5.3 billion bridge financing arrangement for the completion of the Peshawar Northern Bypass project on time.
The Northern Bypass, an over 30km road, envisaged to complete the Ring Road around the provincial capital, has got stuck in the slow lane due to dripping releases from the federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and other issues for the last 17 years.
Officials insist the project currently requires over Rs5 billion for the completion of final stages.
However, it received a paltry allocation of Rs500 million for the current fiscal, triggering alarm bells in the provincial capital about the possible further delay in the project and cost escalations due to small releases.
CM aide says province to loan money to National Highway Authority
When contacted, adviser to the KP chief minister on finance Muzzammil Aslam said that the provincial government was currently considering a bridge financing facility to allocate over Rs5 billion from its resources towards the project.
He said that the issue was also brought into the notice of Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi, who also supported the allocation of provincial funds in order to complete the mega project on time.
Mr Aslam said that the provincial government would loan the money to the National Highway Authority (NHA) which could return it later.
He said that a meeting in this regard was long overdue where a decision would be made on the issue.
The project, which is currently in its 17th year of execution, has seen its cost balloon from Rs3 billion to Rs27 billion due to small releases from the federal government.
The documents available with Dawn show that the project launched in November 2010 has seen three PC-I revisions and missed several deadlines. Package I of the project, measuring 7.6km from motorway interchange to Charsadda Road, was originally scheduled to be completed in 2011. However, the deadline was later revised to 2014.
Over 12km Package II runs from Charsadda Road to Mulazai Chowk. Work on it started in 2015 and was scheduled to complete in 2012. However, it was revised to Dec 31, 2025. This phase has so far seen completion of 64pc work.
Similarly, work on the 5.1km Package 3A, which runs from Mulazai Chowk to Nasir Bagh Road, has been going on since 2013. It was scheduled to be completed in 2014.
However, it was later revised to Dec 31, 2025. A total of 86.5pc of work has been completed in this phase.
Work on Package 3B, which is 5.47km from Nasir Bagh to Takhta Baig checkpost in Khyber district, was launched in Dec 2023 with the scheduled to open in June this year.
However, the project deadline was revised to Feb 2026.
The project PC-I, according to documents available with Dawn, was originally conceived with a cost tag of Rs3.07 billion. In the second PC-I revision, the cost was jacked up to Rs9 billion, Rs21.3 billion in the second revision and Rs27.05 billion in third revision.
The documents pointed out that the project, which was in its closing stages, had a Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) allocation of Rs500 million for the current fiscal; against the requirement of Rs4.27 billion.
They highlighted the importance of revising the PSDP allocation for the current fiscal to Rs5.3 billion, including Rs4.27 billion actual estimate and Rs1.1 billion for escalation.
The project, according to documents, requires Rs0.37 billion in the first quarter, Rs2 billion in the second and third and Rs1 billion in the fourth quarter.
In 2013, then Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan took a suo motu notice of delay in the completion of the project.
Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2025
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