President asks govt to make public report on collapse of Shershah bridge

ISLAMABAD, Feb 16 (APP): President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday advised the government to make public the inquiry report on the collapse of Shershah Bridge in Karachi as had been promised at the time of the inquiry and widely demanded by the public. The President said that for the sake of transparency in mega projects it was important that public should have access to complete information about all projects of NHA including the award of contracts to various contractors, their background, past history, project completion schedule and the ongoing status of each project. With this end in view, the inquiry report into Shershah bridge collapse should also be placed on the web of the National Highway Authority. Over two years ago the Shershah bridge had collapsed just three weeks before its formal inauguration resulting in the death of some people besides huge loss to the national exchequer. The President made these observations during a briefing given in the Presidency by the National Highway Authority on the road network in the country and regional connectivity. The meeting was attended by Dr. Arbab Alamgir Khan, Minister for Communications, Shaukat Tarin, Finance Advisor, Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Kamal Majidullah, SAPM on Water Resources and other senior officials of the relevant ministries and departments. The President said that the development of a strong stable and adequate infrastructure of roads and highways was critical not only for the economic development of the country but also for promoting national harmony and integration among the countries in the region for regional peace and stability. He said that public private partnership offered the most viable model for attracting investment for infrastructure development in view of squeeze on credit availability due to worldwide recession. President Zardari advised the government to examine the possibility of incentive based projects in which special incentives were offered upfront to the private investors for building quality roads and bridges in the minimum of time. However, he said that transparency was important if we had to award incentive based contracts for infrastructure development. The President advised the NHA to explore the possibility of engaging the foreign contractors from Korea, China and other countries working on infrastructure projects in Pakistan for building roads and highways on private public partnership basis. Communications Minister Dr. Arbab Alamgir Khan informed the meeting that the total road network in the country was 260,000 kilometers of which the NHA network was only about 12000 kilometers. The meeting was briefed about the progress made on the various highway projects that link Pakistan with China, Afghanistan, Iran and India. The meeting was also informed about the status of connectivity between Karachi-Khunjrab on the border with China via Mansehra-Chilas and Gilgit and also the road linking the newly built port in Gwadar with Khunjrab.