Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) will construct the Kashmir Chowk underpass at a cost of Rs1.4 billion, with the project targeted for completion within a month, a CDA spokesman stated on Tuesday.
The spokesman said the underpass was designed to ease congestion at Kashmir Chowk, where around 107,000 vehicles pass through the junction daily, particularly causing delays during peak hours.
Under the project, separate underpasses will be constructed for traffic coming from the Serena side and for vehicles travelling from Faizabad towards Murree.
Four new slip roads will also be built to improve traffic distribution around the junction.
The spokesman said about five acres of land would be incorporated into the project for road expansion and allied infrastructure.
The scheme would also be integrated with the proposed expansion of lanes on the Islamabad Expressway.
According to the CDA, the project cost has been brought down to Rs1.4bn from an initial estimate of Rs1.6bn through cost optimisation and planning.
Once integrated with planned improvements to the road network, the project is expected to reduce travel time between Islamabad and Rawalpindi to around 16 to 18 minutes.
