RAWALPINDI: The Leh Expressway project, which remained shelved for almost eight years, is back on the agenda of the Punjab government.

Former President Pervez Musharraf had inaugurated the Rs20 billion Sheikh Rashid Leh Expressway project in 2007.

However, after the formation of PML-N led government in Punjab in 2008, the work on the project was suspended and since then it has been lying in the cold storage.

To silence the critics of Rs44.8 billion metro bus project, it decided to start the expressway project in 2015-16.

Under the project, cemented walls and bed of Leh Nullah will be constructed. The expressway will have dual carriageway from Ammar Chowk to 9th Avenue.

Another major component of the project is to lay sewerage lines in 70 per cent areas of the garrison city as at present 30 per cent area has this facility.

A sewerage treatment plant (STP) will be con-structed at Adiala Village where sewage of Leh Nullah will be treated to use it for irrigation purposes.

It will save the garrison city from flood like situation in every monsoon.

A senior official of the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) told Dawn that the survey of the area had already completed to acquire the land for this purpose.

He said the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) who got the contract in 2007 also approached the Punjab government for this task.

`FWO offered to start the work on this project on 50 per cent deficit basis as it will get 50 per cent of the total amount of the project and the remaining 50 per cent payment will be given after the project is completed,` he said.

The City District Government Rawalpindi ofñcial said after getting the offer, the Punjab government had asked the Communication and Works Department of the province to negotiate it with the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and the local administration of the garrison city.

He said the provincial government had alsocompleted a fresh feasibility of this project in 2014 which recommended that it would ease the traffic on Murree Road and save the country from environmental degradation as well as from flood like situation.

The city government official, however, said the cost of the project had increased from Rs20 billion to Rs40 billion.

`The land acquisition will be a difficult task as mostly residential units will come under this project especially those which had been constructed on the banks,` he said.

He said low lying colonies and mohallahs would be saved permanently from flood like situation in monsoon season.

When contacted, Commissioner Zahid Saeed, who is also the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) director-general, said af ter the metro bus service, the provincial government would start Leh Expressway project in next fiscal year.

He said that initial homework had been started in Lahore and the funds would be allocated in the provincial annual development programme for fiscal 2015-16.