Opening of Ring Road to take another month

RAWALPINDI: The opening of Rawalpindi Ring Road to traffic will take one more month as work on toll plaza and weighing stations is still not completed. A senior official of the district administration told Dawn that after the completion of the remaining work the provincial government will fix the date for the inauguration of the Ring Road constructed at a cost of Rs50.4 billion. 'Total eight weighing stations would be installed to calculate the weight of heavy trucks for toll purposes and after this, the Ring Road will be opened for heavy traffic or light weight traffic.' He said work continued to construct toll plaza booths and the procurement of weighing machine was not yet completed. Work on toll plaza, weighing stations still in progress He said the construction of weighing stations will take two to three weeks and then installation of weighing machines will be started. 'After this, it will take two more weeks to install Intelligence Transportation System and Electronic Toll Collection by Punjab Ring Road Authority. The whole work will take a month or more,' he said. He said that sensors would be installed to weigh trucks and calculate the toll. He said that toll plaza booths were being installed in Baanth and Thalian. The Punjab Ring Road Authority offices are also being established besides the construction of residential areas for officials. He said that Thalian interchange work would be started after the opening of the traffic on Ring Road. He said that the work would likely to complete by December. The road will operate at a design speed of 120km/h with five interchanges and six lane controlled access and 90 metres right of way. There are two bridges on Soan and Sill Rivers, 12 bridges on different nullahs and roads along with one railway bridge near Baanth and 11 overpasses. During the PTI tenure, the Ring Road was planned to be 68km long but after a financial scam, the work was stopped and a new alignment of 38.3km was approved. The then Prime Minister Imran Khan laid foundation stone of the road in March 2022. Later, the Pakistan Democratic government led by Shehbaz Sharif temporarily halted the project and gave the go-ahead after a third-party validation with the new alignment of 38.3km from Baanth to Thalian. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif laid the foundation stone at Rawat on August 8, 2023. Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2026