Commuters suffer as work on Karachi-Hyderabad motorway moves at snail's pace

HYDERABAD/JAMSHORO: The slow progress of construction work on the Rs36 billion Karachi-Hyderabad M9 motorway has not only made the travel between the two cities long and difficult, it has also become a cause of danger for the commuters.

Hundreds of thousands of people travel to and from Karachi and Hyderabad on a daily basis.

Citizens were overjoyed when the federal government announced work on the M9 motorway, but slow progress has put them in doubt on whether it will be completed on time or not. Hurdles due to the ongoing construction have doubled the two-hour long journey to four hours for some commuters.

Citizens are forced to face a diversion after the first 13 kilometres when they begin their travel from Jamshoro to Karachi.

The two-kilometre-long dusty, unpaved sidetrack is filled with rocks and debris from the construction, causing hurdles and long jams for the vehicles.

Commuters heave a sigh of relief when they reach the spectacularly built 75-kilometre highway from Loni Kot to Lucky toll plaza, which inaugurated by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in February 2017.

But only a kilomtere ahead, travelers are faced with a second diversion, with a third, fourth, and fifth diversion up ahead each two, one, and three kilometres long respectively.

The first 75 kilometres of the 136 kilometre Hyderabad-Karachi motorway appear to have been completed, but the remaining track has five diversions measuring up to nine kilometres long in total where construction is still underway.

The Karachi-Hyderabad M9 motorway will be completed by finishing parts of the remaining 52 kilometres as well as including some patches of the existing Super Highway.

If you begin travelling back from Karachi, the first five-kilometre diversion appears 22 kilometres, with yet another three-kilometre long diversion coming up shortly afterwards.

75km of the 136km Karachi-Hyderabad motorway has been completed, while work is underway on 8 kilometre diversions. The remaining 53 kilometres will be completed by either finishing the patches or including parts of the existing highway into the M9 motorway.