Lack of investment, lethargic projects hurting Pakistan's highways: Report

Islamabad [Pakistan], July 24 : The people in Pakistan continue to face difficulties in travelling by road because of the deplorable conditions of roads and highways lacking investment, attention as well as lethargic projects, reported The News International. 
Adnan Aamir, in an article in The News International, recalled his experience of travelling to Quetta to celebrate Eid, during which he encountered one after the other examples of the poor and deplorable condition of roads and highways in Pakistan.
The author highlighted that the roads from DI Khan to Quetta are in a dilapidated condition; many bridges are broken. Debris from recent landslides covers the roads, making it an extremely hazardous journey.
"I learnt that the problem is not unique to this route; all highways in Balochistan are in poor condition," said Aamir.
The road route from Islamabad to Quetta passes through tall mountains and even modest rain results in land sliding and the closing of roads for traffic. It leads to immense chaos for the public as they have to remain stuck here for hours.
Another reason for the deplorable conditions is the fact that the Pakistani government has not invested enough in this route to ensure that it remains landslide-proof throughout the year.
The author recounted watching several bridges and portions of the road, especially near turnings, damaged. It was found that they were damaged during the massive rainfalls and flash floods last year. However, almost a year later, the rebuilding work has yet to commence.
It is pertinent to mention that the Federal Minister for Communications Mufti Asad Mehmood of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) belongs to DI Khan. Still, there is no visible effort on the part of the government to repair these roads in the vicinity of DI Khan.
"This speaks volumes about the current government’s priorities," said Aamir.
Although, the road through Zhob town was in relatively good condition till Quetta, but there stood a narrow two-lane highway without any dividers. This means that overtaking slow-moving traffic on this highway involves the risk of a collision with traffic coming from the opposite direction.
The Pakistan government has started a project to dualise the Quetta-Zhob Highway. However, the project is moving at a snail’s pace and is not expected to be completed in the next five years if construction work progresses at the same pace, The News International reported. 
Torrential rains and subsequent flash floods have further washed away the famous Pinjra Bridge in the Bolan region of Balochistan. After floods last year, this bridge was temporarily restored and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the site to congratulate the construction staff. But, in April this year, the temporary bridge was swept by rainfall.
The bridge has still not been repaired, resulting in travellers being stranded in Bolan for hours following high levels of water in the Bolan River after rainfall. The National Highway Authority has not been able to rebuild a small bridge on a busy interprovincial highway in a year, The News International reported.
Notably, the dualisation of the Quetta-Karachi Highway has been a very popular and oft-repeated demand by the people of Balochistan. The highway is known as a ‘killer’ highway because the narrow road sees frequent deadly accidents.
The federal government started dualising this road a few years back. However, it is being built at the same pace as the Quetta-Zhob Highway and at the current rate, could take 10 years to complete.
According to The News International piece, the aforementioned problems of highways affect the people of Balochistan in multiple ways.
Firstly, there is an avoidable loss of lives in road accidents due to poor highway infrastructure. This scribe found that between 2006 and 2016 the number of people killed in road accidents in Balochistan was five times that of casualties in suicide attacks.
Secondly, the poor condition of highways makes it harder for people of Balochistan to travel to larger cities of Pakistan for socio-economic reasons. Among others, these include travelling for work, education, medical treatment and foreign travel.
The poor condition of roads in Balochistan makes people hesitant to make frequent journeys to larger cities such as Karachi, Islamabad or Lahore. This has created an additional barrier to upward social mobility for the people of Balochistan.
Thirdly, the poor condition of inter-provincial highways increases the travel time to larger cities from where goods for daily consumption are brought to the province. This results in increasing transportation costs, which become a factor in high prices in peripheral regions of Balochistan, where three out of four people already live below the poverty line.
Likewise, businesses cannot flourish in Balochistan because it takes longer and is costlier to bring in raw materials. This again contributes to keeping Balochistan economically underdeveloped.
According to author Adnan Aamir, the solution to Balochistan’s highway problems lies with the federal government since highways happen to be a federal subject. He believes that the Pakistan government has to allocate substantial funds for upgrading and repair of highways in Balochistan, or else the deplorable conditions will continue to affect the lives of the people.