The Swat Motorway
( ur, , ps, سوات بزرگراه ), also known as the M-16 or Swat Expressway, is a four-lane
motorway
A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
and
provincial controlled-access highway in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. Phase-1 of the project, completed in June 2019, connects the existing
M-1 motorway at
Nowshera to
Chakdara while the under-construction second phase will extend the project to
Fatehpur.
Route
The phase-1 of motorway stretches from
Nowshera to
Chakdara in
Lower Dir District, passing through
Swabi,
Mardan
Mardān (Pashto and ; Urdu ; Pashto: ) is a city in the Mardan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Located in the Valley of Peshawar, Mardan is the second-largest city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (after Peshawar). It is a fast-growi ...
,
Malakand and Swat districts. The phase-1 of the project was inaugurated in August 2016. and opened for traffic on 3 June 2019 The phase-1 reduced the travel time from Nowshera to Chakdara from three hours to one hour. The Swat motorway phase-1 was constructed by the
Frontier Works Organization at a cost of . The
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field offi ...
and
China provided the principal technical and financial assistance for the project, while
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...
pledged .
Phase two of the motorway will extend another 79 kilometers to the north and terminate at Fatehpur. It will pass through Chakdara, Shamozai, Barikot, Mingora, Kanju, Malam Jabba, Sher Palam, Matta Khwazakhela, and ends at Madayan-Fatehpur Interchange. On 16 July 2020, ECNEC approved land acquisition for Swat Motorway Phase-II at a cost of Rs. 20 bn. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government allocated Rs. 70 bn. for the extension The Swat motorway or M-16 should not be confused with the
E90 Expressway (Besham–Khwazakhela Expressway) proposed by the
National Highway Authority
The National Highway Authority (NHA; ur, ) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Communications (MoCom) of Pakistan.
History
In 1978, the Government of Pakistan federalised five important inter-provincial roads and named them ''National ...
, which also terminates in Swat.
Swat Phase-II extension
Swat Motorway phase-II will be completed under a public-private partnership. The length of the motorway will be 80-kilometer. It will connect
Thana Baizai
Thana means "police station" in South Asian countries, and can also mean the district controlled by a police station.
* Thanas of Bangladesh, former subdistricts in the administrative geography of Bangladesh; later renamed ''upazila''
* in (Briti ...
to Fatehpur. The cost of the project is Rs. 37 billion with an additional Rs. 20.5 billion for the purchase of land. It will have nine interchanges and eight bridges. The motorway would have four lanes with the future possibility of extending it to six lanes.
On 11 March 2021, a summary was presented before ECNEC regarding 10,000 kanal land acquisition for Swat Motorway phase-II to be sponsored by the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and executed by Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority (PKHA) (through Federal PSDP) equal to RS.20,000 million for construction of about 80 km 04-lane motorway from Chakdara to Fatehpur.
The Committee approved the said project and strongly recommended to complete such projects on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis.
https://pakobserver.net/ecnec-approves-4-lane-sambrial-kharian-motorway/
See also
*
Motorways of Pakistan
Motorways of Pakistan ( ur, ) are a network of multiple-lane, high-speed, controlled-access highways in Pakistan which are owned, maintained, and operated federally by Pakistan's National Highway Authority. At present, 2816 km of motorways ...
*
Provincial Highways of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa The Provincial Highways of Khyber Pakthunkhwa consists of all public highways maintained by the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Pakhtunkhwa Highways Authority under the Department of Transportation maintains over of roadways organis ...
*
E90 Expressway
*
Malam Jabba ski resort
*
Tourism in Pakistan
*
Peshawar–D.I. Khan motorway
Notes
{{Roads in Pakistan
Motorways in Pakistan
Expressways in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Roads in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa