Following the intelligence reports, the National Highway Authority (NHA) has decided to establish a state-of-the-art security watchtower at the Jhelum River Bridge on GT Road (N-5) to thwart potential terrorist threats, Daily Times has learnt reliably.
According to available document, the NHA’s Wazirabad office received an urgent request by the Special Branch, Punjab to take some comprehensive safety measures for said bridge, which the branch has called ‘sensitive’, to prevent terrorist activities.
Subsequently, Chairman NHA directed the immediate submission of an engineer’s estimate for setting up a security tower at Jhelum Bridge, deeming it as a key security point.
After receiving said alert, the NHA’s General Manager (maintenance) Punjab- North had moved a letter, along with file, to headquarters with detailing notes pertaining rising concerns by the Special Branch Punjab for security measures at said bridge. The special branch is a law enforcement and intelligence wing of the Punjab Police that is supposed to gather intelligence on internal security matters in best national interests.
In the file, the NHA General Manager (GM) Punjab-North requested the authorities concerned to give approval of engineer’ estimate for construction of the security watchtower, check post, installation of solar street, solar flood lights and installation of security cameras at the aforementioned location on GT Road, N-5.
The GM further states that it was submitted as per immediate directions of the Chairman NHA. Estimate of the engineer comes out to around Rs 3.807 million for the construction of said essentials while the funds will be managed from special maintenance head of the authority.
The N-5 is the longest national highway in the country and serves as an important north-south road artery, starting from Karachi and extending through Hyderabad, Moro and Sukkur in Sindh before crossing into Punjab province where it passes through Multan, Sahiwal, Lahore, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Lalamusa, Kharian, Jhelum and Rawalpindi. At Rawalpindi, it turns westwards and passes through Attock Khurd before crossing the Indus River into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to continue through Nowshera and Peshawar before entering the Khyber Pass and reaching the town of Torkham on the border with Afghanistan. Of its total length, 1021 km is in Punjab, 671 km in Sindh, and 165 km in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Earlier, Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan proposed the establishment of emergency services centers at every 30 kilometers on motorways and highways. He also announced that his ministry is reviewing the options under which helicopter and air ambulance services could also be started at motorways and highways. He also directed Rescue Services-1122 stations be connected to motorways to ensure the swift provision of emergency medical aid in the shortest time possible.
Meanwhile, in a separate development, the NHA successfully managed to remove a landslide on Karakoram highway that left people stranded on the highway which resulted in the traffic restoration of this road.
A sudden boulder slide near the Looter caused severe disruption to traffic on the Karakoram highway and other key routes. Upon receiving the report, NHA and Frontier works organisation officials arrived at the site and commenced relief operations. Resultantly, in the middle of night, the Karakoram highway was reopened for traffic and all stranded passengers were able to continue their journey home.
