Lyari Expressway لیاری بزرگرہ |
|
---|---|
Route information | |
Maintained by City District Government Karachi | |
Length: | 16 km (10 mi) |
Existed: | 2007 – present |
Highway system | |
Roads in Pakistan |
Lyari Expressway (Urdu: لیاری بزرگرہ, Sindhi: لیاری بزرگرہ) is a 16-km city district expressway currently under construction along the Lyari River in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. The expressway is expected to be completed by August 2017, with a formal inauguration ceremony to be held on 14 August 2017.
This toll expressway is designed to relieve congestion Karachi. Lyari Expressway was scheduled to be completed in December 2009 but completion was delayed due a lack of funding and difficulties in resettling affected residents. In June 2016, it was announced that the final legal hurdles had been cleared and 99% of construction was complete, with the last 1 km to be finished by the end of the year. The final budget estimate is 11 billion Pakistan Rupees, up from the original estimate of 5 billion. The cost of developing this expressway has been revised several times since it was first proposed. Originally estimated at Rs 5.1 billion, as of March 2006 it is expected to cost Rs 8 billion once completed. It will be a 16.5 km 8 lane expressway that will consist of four lanes on both sides, with two interchanges, five overpasses and five underpasses. Moreover, two lanes each will be constructed on either bank of the Lyari River. Once completed, traffic volume is estimated at 34,000 vehicles. The expressway will have toll plazas at four locations.
The Lyari Expressway project was launched on 11 May 2002, with the aim of serving as a commuting artery connecting Mauripur Road and the M9 motorway, thus alleviating the burden of traffic plying on surface routes between to and from Karachi Port. When work started on the Lyari Expressway in May 2002, the National Highway Authority (NHA) had expected to complete it in 30 months (i.e. by November 2004). Having revised the completion schedule, as of December 2006 the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), the executing agency for the NHA, expects the southbound section running from Sohrab Goth to Mauripur Road completed by the end of 2007. The construction of Lyari Expressway was stopped for several years due to the restructuring of Municipal governments in Sindh and lack of funds. In July 2014, Government of Pakistan announced Rs 6 billion for completion of Lyari Expressway. Lyari Expressway Project is 32 kilometres long and its 2013-14 revised estimate is Rs 1,202 million and 80 percent of this project has also been completed.