RAWALPINDI:
With only 14 days left till the end of 2025, work on some long-pending major Rawalpindi projects, including Leh Expressway and Children’s Hospital, could not begin during the current year.
However, during the outgoing year, three road infrastructure projects of the Punjab government were completed in Rawalpindi.
Work on the Kachehri Chowk mega project is ongoing and is scheduled for completion in March 2026, along with three additional underpasses.
Construction work on another flyover and an underpass will begin in the New Year. Road infrastructure projects worth over Rs 30 billion undertaken by the Punjab government are expected to be completed next year.
The year also saw the launch of electric bus service for residents of Rawalpindi. Meanwhile, the Rs 50,000-crore Rawalpindi Ring Road project is expected to be completed in the New Year.
According to sources, only two road infrastructure projects related to the development of Rawalpindi were completed this year, including the Nawaz Sharif flyover at Khawaja Corporation Chowk on Adiala Road, and underpasses at TM Chowk and GPO Chowk on Mall Road.
Construction work on three underpasses and one flyover at Kachehri Chowk, which began on November 3 this year, is now expected to be completed by March or April next year.
During the New Year, construction of underpasses at Race Course Chowk, Qabristan Chowk and Charing Cross Chowk on Peshawar Road will also begin, with a completion timeline of three months. Also, a new flyover will be constructed at Ammar Shaheed Chowk, where an underpass already exists.
The Rawalpindi Ring Road works, which have been underway for the past three years, have reached 75 per cent progress. The authorities have announced that the project will be completed by the last week of March next year.
In the New Year, plans have also been approved to start projects, including widening of an additional road on a two-kilometre stretch of Murree Road from Liaquat Bagh to Chandni Chowk, and construction of an underpass at Ninth Avenue Chowk on IJP Road.
However, progress could not go beyond the preparation of a Rs 9.5 billion PC-I for the long-pending Lai Expressway and Flood Canal project, as well as the conversion of the long-incomplete mother and child hospital into a children’s hospital.
Although the Punjab government transferred the incomplete Mother and Child Hospital project from the federal government and approved PC-I for Rs 9.5 billion to give it the status of a 400-bed children’s hospital, work on the project did not begin this year.
Similarly, even though the foundation stone of Rawalpindi Institute of Urology and Kidney Transplant was laid in 2012, kidney and liver transplant procedures could not be started in Rawalpindi.
While the project has since been transferred to PKLI Lahore, emergency OPD and dialysis facilities are currently available at PKLI Rawalpindi.
