M9 motorway road broken months after PM`s inauguration

KARACHI: Hardly two months after its official inauguration by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, broken patches have appeared on Karachi-Hyderabad M9 motorway –risking lives of thousands of commuters on daily basis.

The M9 motorway started deteriorating as it was unable to stand the regular heavy traffic – resulting in unevenness on the road surface- three kilometres from Lonikot toll plaza tire marks are seen all over a lane.

Image of an uneven section of road

Speaking to Geo News, commuters lamented that despite remaining stuck in traffic for hours during its construction, they have got a below the mark road to travel.

Citizens were overjoyed when the federal government announced work on the M9 motorway, but slow progress had put them in hurdles due to the ongoing construction which doubled the two-hour long journey to four hours for some commuters.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated a completed section of the Karachi-Hyderabad M9 motorway project on Feb 3.

The M-9

Construction of the M-9 motorway started in 2015; with a cost of Rs36 billion, the six-lane 136-km-long M-9 motorway with four interchanges links Karachi and Hyderabad.

The four interchanges, Dadabhai, Industrial Valley, Nooriabad and Thana Bola Khan will help connect Tharparkar, Jimphir, Keenjhar and other areas as well.

75km of the 136km Karachi-Hyderabad motorway has been completed, while work is underway on eight- 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.

While the federal government has completed over 50 percent of the M-9 motorway, the entire project is expected to be completed by March 2018.