The ground breaking was performed by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. Arbab Alamgir said the main feature of this 43 kilometres highway was that its seven kilometres part was in the Punjab, while its 36 kilometres came in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and this project had cost 2,854 million rupees.
"This 43 kilometres highway starts at Taxila on Peshawar Rawalpindi National Highway and reaches Khanpur and Haripur. This road was federalised in 2010 and declared a national highway, which is an important link between Punjab and KP." He said with the completion of this highway, links between Punjab and KP would be strengthened which would improve trade and business activities in both the provinces.
The Federal Minister said the network of roads determined the overall progress of the country and the Ministry of Communications was working under the National Trade Corridor Programme that would boost economic development of the whole region. He said that under the National Trade Corridor Programme, progress was being made to set up an efficient, swift and world standard highway network so that a quality communication facility would be provided to the future trade traffic.
In this connection, work was in progress on projects such as North-South Expressway, Motorway System, Gwadar Port and up-gradation of Karakoram Highway, the Minister added. Arbab Alamgir Khan said the development and construction process was being directly monitored by the Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and President Asif Ali Zardari so that those projects were timely completed.
The Minister said "we want to provide relief to the people in every sector but there is no doubt that we are confronted with numerous problems including terrorism and our resources are also limited, but despite all this, our determination is strong and, with the Grace of Almighty Allah, we will change the destiny of our nation and the PPP will strike again in the coming elections."