ISLAMABAD: National Highway Authority (NHA) intending to build 216-kilometre Gilgit-Shandoor road has issued tenders for hiring services of a consultant/ engineering organisation/ firm to carry out a feasibility study and preliminary design of the project.
An official of NHA told APP on Friday that a pre-proposal conference was held in the NHA Auditorium here while the last date for submission of proposals will be March 20. He said that the technical proposals shall be opened on the same day at 1200 hours, whereas the financial proposals of only technically qualified firms shall be opened after finalisation of technical evaluation.
He said that project would form part of Gilgit-Shandoor-Chitral road which would provide an alternate route to China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
He said that detail design and feasibility study of the Shandoor-Chitral section has been completed while pre-feasibility study for Gilgit-Shandoor section has also been completed.
The official said that new road will be an all-weather road and will also provide an alternative route to CPEC during the winter season when the Silk route is closed due to snowfall.
With it, people of the country would easily travel to Chitral throughout the year. After Lowari Tunnel the new project will be another best possible route for travelling to the region and will save travel time as well.
The estimated cost of 345-kilometre long road is Rs45 billion. The designed speed on the two-lane road would be 40 kilometre per hour. The road will have 30 bridges and 1283 culverts including 48 pipe culverts and 212 box culverts.
