Lyari Expressway () is a 38 km city district expressway constructed along the Lyari River in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.
History
The expressway was expected to be completed by August 2017, with a formal inauguration ceremony to be held on 14 August 2017.
The project had been delayed for more than 15 years due to the lack of federal funding and no interest shown by the Sindh provincial Government.
After the High Court deadline, Lyari Expressway completion date was finally announced. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi inaugurated the pending northbound track of expressway on 28 January 2018, which starts from Mauripur and end at Sohrab Goth Interchange.
History
The Lyari Expressway project was launched on 11 May 2002, with the aim of serving as a commuting artery connecting Mauripur Road and the M9 motorway, thus alleviating the burden of traffic plying on surface routes between to and from Karachi Port. When work started on the Lyari Expressway in May 2002, the National Highway Authority (NHA) had expected to complete it in 30 months (i.e. by November 2004). Having revised the completion schedule, as of December 2006 the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), the executing agency for the NHA, expects the southbound section running from Sohrab Goth to Mauripur Road completed by the end of 2007. The construction of Lyari Expressway was stopped for several years due to the restructuring of Municipal governments in Sindh and lack of funds. In July 2014, Government of Pakistan announced Rs 6 billion for completion of Lyari Expressway. Lyari Expressway Project is 32 kilometres long and its 2013-14 revised estimate is Rs 1,202 million and 80 percent of this project has also been completed.
This section is copied as-is from an article in the Dawn newspaper. "The Lyari Expressway was nowhere in the picture until 1986. The Karachi Master Plan 1975–85 had proposed the Northern and Southern Bypasses to enable traffic going upcountry from Karachi port to bypass the city and thus ease congestion and pollution. The Southern Bypass was designed to go through the Defence Authority area and link Karachi port with the National Highway. It had to be dropped because of stiff resistance from the DHA on environmental grounds. The Northern Bypass that could have been easily constructed then was not built on account of the apathy of the policy makers. Public attention was focussed on the Lyari, which wrecked (sic) destruction in 1977 when heavy rains caused severe flooding to 200 deaths. Wapda did come up with a flood protection plan but this was never implemented. In 1986, the Lyari Expressway was proposed as an alternative to the Northern Bypass, but was found unfeasible since 100,000 people would have to be evicted. The floods in 1993 led to the revival of the plan for the expressway as a device for flood protection apart from its function of providing another traffic corridor. Opposition from civil society led the Sindh government to arrange public hearings on the project in 1996 after which the Lyari Expressway was dropped and attention was focussed on the Northern Bypass for port traffic. This was found feasible in view of the fact that most of the land on which it was to be built was uninhabited. Four years later in 2000 the Karachi Port Trust decided to begin work on the Bypass on a BOT basis. It was to be a six-lane highway 68 km in length that would connect Mauripur to the Super Highway beyond the toll plaza at Sohrab Goth. In June 2001 there was a change of heart and the government came up with the idea of building both the Northern Bypass and the Lyari Expressway together in the budget for the bypass alone. This two-in-one approach appealed to the highest quarters though it is not known how this feat was to be achieved by those masterminding it. The work was entrusted to the National Highway Authority and the FWO (Frontier Works Organization) was appointed contractor for LEP (Lyari Expressway Project), and the NLC for the bypass. The alignment of the bypass was changed to make it shorter and its lanes were reduced to four to cut the cost."