The National Highway Authority (NHA) and the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) have decided to open the 91-km Lahore-Sialkot Motorway (M-11) for traffic today (Wednesday).

The four-lane motorway will reduce the travelling time between the two cities to 50 minutes, while also reducing the traffic pressure on the GT Road and the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway.

The Lahore-Sialkot Motorway runs parallel to the GT Road, while passing through in the east of Kamoke, Gujranwala, Daska and Sambrial.

It has seven interchanges, six flyovers, 24 bridges and 22 underpasses besides 13 subways to facilitate the people.

Three industrial zones and two universities would also be built in the area long the motorway.

The motorway provides all the modern facilities like service areas, electronic toll and traffic management, security cameras, mobile workshops, ambulances and incident and emergency response unit.

It will further help boost economic activities in Sialkot which provides 10 percent of the country’s total exports.

The FWO has executed the project on the basis of BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer). It will manage the motorway for the next 25 years.

Road network around the world is considered the basic structure for development, which connects farmers to markets and traders with bazaars. Villages and towns are linked with the cities and thus the development process continues.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has an important role in creating a network of roads and motorways in Pakistan. That’s why 35 motorway and highway projects were completed in just his last tenure. These 2,813 kilometres long projects cost Rs498 billion.

Special attention was given to the smaller provinces while planning these projects. As such 1,000 kilometres long highway network was added in Balochistan, which include 193-km Kalat-Quetta-Chaman Highway, 449-km Gwadar-Turbat-Hoshab Highway and 57-km Hoshab-Panjgur-Naag-Basima Highway.

During the tenure of Nawaz Sharif, different ventures were also executed under CPEC. Some of these are: 335-km Khunjrab-Rai Kot Section, Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway, Khanewal-Multan Motorway, Gojra-Toba Tek section and Multan-Shujabad Motorway. Meanwhile, 166-km Sharaqpur-Rajana section was completed in less than two years.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the 46-km Burhan-Shah Maqsood section of the Hazara Motorway was also constructed. It was inaugurated by the then prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. According to the projects, Pakistan would be connected with China by motorway.

It was the PML-N government during which the foundation stone of Sialkot-Lahore Motorway was laid. And this project has been completed now. Earlier, the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway was also completed during his second tenure as prime minister. Meanwhile, the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway was also envisaged and planned during the same period.

But the most important thing is that foundation stone of not a single road has been laid during first 18 months of the current government.