FOR fifteen years, Pakistan’s motorway network has carried a glaring gap through its centre.

The M-6 Sukkur-to-Hyderabad Motorway remains the missing 306-kilometre link between Karachi Port and the country’s northern corridor. Until it is completed, trucks carrying export goods, buses transporting families and ambulances travelling north from Karachi are forced onto the ageing N-5 highway. The consequences are visible every day in deadly accidents, wasted fuel, delayed cargo, damaged produce and rising transport costs.

That can now change. Financing has largely been secured, federal approvals are complete and the National Highway Authority is preparing to move ahead. What remains is decisive action from Sindh, particularly on land acquisition. This is the moment for President Asif Ali Zardari and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to turn M-6 into the defining infrastructure project of the next two years.

Once completed, M-6 will finally connect Pakistan’s motorway........

© Pakistan Observer