ISLAMABAD: The construction work on the long-awaited Karachi-Sukkur Motorway (M6) will start this year, and the centre is likely to invite the Sindh government to join the project, which will also connect the Karachi port.

Communications and Privatisation Minister Abdul Aleem Khan issued instructions during a special departmental meeting on Wednesday to take steps to start the construction of the Karachi-Sukkur Motorway project. He said the motorway would start from Karachi Port and be connected to the Sukkur Motorway.

Mr Aleem said that the federal government would launch the project on a public-private partnership basis, and the Sindh government would also be offered to join. However, if the public-private partnership does not materialise, the minister asserted that the centre would bear the entire cost of the project.

The Sindh government has already agreed to consider the federal government`s offer, and Mr Aleem and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah have already discussed it.

The federal and Sindh governments may form a consortium if private-sector partnerships are not secured.

According to amendments in the plan, the M6 motorway will start from Karachi port to Sukkur via Hyderabad instead of the Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway.

During the meeting, the minister said that the Karachi-Sukkur motorway will be a milestone in the country`s development, particularly in commercial goods transportation. In the next 25 years, he said the motorway project will earn revenue worth Rs3 trillion as profit.