The Islamabad-Lahore Motorway (M2) in the salt range region will now have a safer detour, according to a decision made by the National Highway Authority (NHA). The motorway’s slowest and riskiest stretch is reputed to be this one.
A feasibility assessment for the project was approved by the Departmental Development Working Party during a recent meeting chaired by Secretary Communications Ali Sher Mehsud. NHA is currently looking for a respectable consulting company to revise the feasibility assessment and create a thorough realignment strategy.
One of Pakistan’s most important motorway connections is the 1997 completion of the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway. But the region of the salt range is notorious for frequent mishaps, calamities, and high ascents, which are especially difficult for freight trucks due to their 7% upward inclination.
This 10-kilometer stretch has a 7% incline and has experienced several fatal incidents despite the low driving speeds. Tragically, in one such occurrence, the brakes on a school bus failed, killing forty students. Another tragic incident was a passenger bus that lost control because its brakes failed, resulting in an accident that claimed the lives of twenty people.
Heading from Islamabad towards Lahore, this hazardous stretch starts at the Kallar Kahar intersection. More than 200 people have died in almost 350 accidents in the salt range since the motorway’s completion.
The NHA highlights the need for practical solutions to enhance safety and handle future traffic increases in light of the growing demands on transportation. The suggested proposal calls for building tubes and tunnels; preliminary analysis indicatesA new routing for heavy traffic was suggested by a 2006 study to prevent landslides, however the project was put off even though then-Chairman NHA Maj-Gen (retired) Farrukh Javed strongly supported it.
