Capital Development Authority (CDA), in Islamabad, has planned an expansion of the current 6 lane Islamabad Highway, from Zero Point Interchange till the Faizabad Flyover, to an 8 lane route immediately. An interchange has been planned to be constructed on the I-8 Crossing Chowk as well. Tenders have been received for this project which has been planned to be completed within 6 months at max.
An ambitious project that it is, reports state that 8 giant construction firms have been pre-qualified for it and their offers shall be opened on June 26, 2015 and work shall commence from the first week of July. The main purpose behind this project is to provide a jam-free route for traffic from Faizabad to Zero Point Interchange and beyond that. In the second phase of the project, it shall be extended from Faizabad Flyover to Karal Chowk and in the third phase, it shall be extended to Rawaat city and made into a 10 lane highway from which two lanes shall be designated for heavy traffic only.
Traffic starts to pile up at the I-8 crossing in peak hours and causes massive delays. It is planned to make this patch of Islamabad Highway signal free. This means, most probably, a flyover or an underpass on I-8 signal crossing as well. Same idea of signal free highway will be carried out throughout the expansion phases of Islamabad Expressway.
Priorities seem to be reverse, as ph 3 and ph 2 badly need expansion before ph-1
100% right the priority is the exact opposite, phase3 needs to be implemented first as the roads in that part after karal chowk upto rawat are a mess!
You are right!
Finally after hearing it for almost like 4 years it seems like now they are really going to expand it. It’s a major highway connecting islamabad Via Gt road so This most important Islamabad highway should be made totally signal free and if possible a ring road should be provided for the heavy traffic going to kashmir and and also to add a motorway interchange at rawat so people can connect to new air port.