Nishtar Ghat Bridge Linking N-5 With N-55 Likely To Be Completed This Year

ISLAMABAD, (Muzaffargarh.City – 24th Feb, 2017 ) : Nishtar Ghat bridge, one of the major infrastructure projects being built by the National Highway Authority is likely to be completed this year.

An official of NHA told APP that the project also called Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Bridge would contact District Rajanpur and Balochistan with Punjab via the GT Road (N-5) and the Indus Highway (N-55) on both sides of River Indus.

The project has been divided into four packages, including an approach road from Kot Mithan to N-55, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto bridge over River Indus linking N-5 with N-55, approach roads from Chachran Sharif on Tehsil Khanpur of Rahim Yar Khan district, Abutment B to Kot Mithan,Zahir Pir and Chachran Sharif and the construction of Guide Banks.

He said that the main bridge had been completed and now work was in progress on access roads.

It is worth a mention that the Nishtar Ghat project was announced in 1988 by the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto but was delayed for a host of reasons.

Work on the bridge was initiated in 2002 over the NIshtar Ghat bridge on River Indus after the dual carriageway between Taranda Muhammad Pannah and Bahawalpur and between Multan and Muzaffargarh was approved, but it was again delayed.

In 2009, the construction work on the project was handed over to the NHA and its design was approved in 2010. The project was re-aligned in 2010 after major floods which necessitated detailed model studies. There was no progress on the project till 2012 mainly because of financial constraints and land acquisition issues. The project once again halted in 2012 due to financial issues.