Karachi-Sehwan Motorway via Kirthar Park

Save $80m fuel imports/travel costs, 11m hours & 270m kg CO2 every year

Dear Readers, AoA

Amidst the noise around the third-wave, lock-downs, Hafeez Shaikh’s ouster, Rupee’s appreciation & Archegos Capital’s fiasco, let’s divert to saving costs for consumers and bring efficiencies.

For people - and transporters - travelling north from Karachi, every km, every Rupee & every minute counts. Your writer has felt no different. Travelling from his hometown (Larkana) to Karachi - a whopping 450km distance - has reduced from 9 hours to nearly 6 hours in the last two decades. Along with better security, dual lanes & pleasure drive. That’s a major improvement. But we can do better. How?

A new motorway - Karachi to Sehwan via Kirthar National Park.

Currently, the distance from Karachi to Sehwan is 286km as shown in the map below.

Such a new motorway should ideally reduce the distance by 87 km (from 280km to 193km).

How much could Pakistanis save? Rs 12bn ($80m)/year worth of fuel

According to officials in Sindh government, total daily traffic via Karachi to Hyderabad motorway runs at ~45,000 vehicles per day. Exclude the un-attended cities, such as Hyderabad, Nooriabad etc, populating 3.6m people, on the motorway, Karachi-Hyderabad motorway is the aorta for 150m people living up-north. That’s almost 65% of Pakistan’s population. Creating an alternative way for ~30,000 vehicles per day to address economic needs of 65% of population is a must.

Let’s try to brainstorm total economic savings via the new hypothetical motorway:

Passenger Car:

Mileage: 12km/liter

Petrol Price (Rs.): Rs. 110/litre

Distance saved: ~80km

Fuel cost saved: Rs 733 ((110/12)*80)

Total Passenger Cars/day: 3,000 (10% of 30,000 vehicles per day)

Total Daily Fuel Savings: Rs 2.2m

Total Annual Fuel Savings: Rs 803m (Rs 2.2m x 365 days)

Commercial Vehicles:

Mileage: 8km/liter

Diesel Price (Rs.): Rs. 113/litre

Distance saved: ~80km

Fuel Saved: Rs 1,130 ((113/8)*80)

Total Commercial Vehicles/day: 27,000 (90% of 30,000 vehicles per day)

Total Daily Fuel Savings: Rs. 30.5m

Total Annual Fuel Savings: Rs 11,136m (Rs 30.5m x 365 days)

Total Savings from Passenger & Commercial vehicles: Rs ~12b/year ($80m/yr of fuel imports)

Let’s bullet the benefits of the new motorway:

• Reduced Import bill: $80m worth of fuel savings/year. Yes, a mere dot on the import bill but every little helps. After all, we have always had economic boom-and-bust because of Balance of Payment crises.

• Reduced Inflation: Rs 12b worth of savings for businesses/consumers would marginally - albeit very minute, but I just had to make a case - reduce the inflationary pressures on the economy & eventually, circle their way back into the economy.

• Reduced Carbon foot-prints: Total fuel savings of Petrol (7.3m liters/annum) & Diesel (98m liters/annum) translate into reducing annual carbon foot-prints worth 16.7m kg of CO2 (Petrol) + 256m kg of CO2 (Diesel). Burning one liter of fuel is the most polluting act;

  

• Save ~80km travel: The current highway veins connecting Karachi to Sehwan measure 280km. These can be reduced ideally to 193m (87km savings. Of course, the road ain’t gonna be a straight line only (why not?). Nonetheless, it’s almost a near 100km worth of lesser distance.

• Save 11m hours travel/year: Travelling from Karachi to Multan requires 11 hours (884km) & Karachi to Lahore 15 hours (1211km). For passenger cars, a 100km worth of reduction implies an hour’s saving (@80km/hour). So yes, Lahore & Multan get closer to Karachi. Most importantly, savings are more profound for commercial traffic that can save 1.5 hours worth of travel (@50km/hour). Cumulatively, 30,000 cars saving an hour everyday implies 11m travel hours.

• Get to your cities: Today, passengers travelling to Northern Sindh have to unnecessarily pass through cities, such as, Hyderabad, NawabShah, Hala & Naushero Feroz. Mind you, if we exclude the cities that the new motorway wouldn’t connect, we will only be excluding cities with total population of 3.6m . In other words, only those passengers would travel via Karachi-Hyderabad motorway whose destination fall - or need to pass through - via the South-East Sindh motorway.

• Increase tourism: Travel through Kirthar National Park might increase tourism & increase the love for nature & wildlife among Pakistanis. Government can lease the nearby areas for forestation/modern agriculture/green belts to offer a pleasing view to the passengers.

• Increase beach tourism: Sindh’s citizens are fed up of sewerage filled Karachi’s Seaview. Nonetheless, there is a life there on weekends. Most middle/upper middle class people take refuge in Hawkes Bay, French Beach & Gaddani. Beginning the motorway from the Eastern Karachi (Lyari Expressway/Mauripur side) would improve connectivity of beaches near Mubarak Village & Gaddani for people’s access.

• Smoother access to Bahria Town Karachi/DHA City: Currently, citizens travelling to these areas have to pass through densely populated Lyari Expressway, Sohrab Goth & beyond and/or jam-packed Shahrah-e-Faisal. Sohrab Goth to Motorway is a congested path. Even with the advent of Malir Expressway, the commercial traffic wouldn’t disappear but merely split. Reduce the truck-art on the way via alternate routes & suddenly, Karachiites would feel good about travelling (a near impossibility today).

• Create new cities: Newer connectivity routes increase the economic activity in erstwhile remote cities & villages thereby creating jobs for people. In addition, enhanced activity increases the value of nearby lands manifolds that can help farmers/landlords with a “Real Estate” effect.

• Increases longevity of Karachi- Hyderabad motorway: With a significant chunk of commercial traffic diverted from the heavily frequented motorway, life & maintenance cost of current motorway would improve. However, there should be a revenue sharing model with current & proposed motorways as economic feasibility of Karachi-Hyderabad motorway would get materially affected adversely.

• Reduce traffic accidents: Saving lives of citizens is priceless and beyond the economic value of life. With much lower traffic on highways in Southern Sindh, there would be a drastic reduction in the number of horrible traffic accidents we hear every other day.

Most Pakistanis, let alone citizens of Sindh, would have never visited Kirthar National Park in their lifetime. Definitely, better than seeing housing societies on your side via Karachi-Hyderabad motorway. Check these out;

Ecologists might rightly argue about the threat to the wildlife but carving out a strip of tax-paying highway is exactly what we need to generate enough revenue resources to further promote natural scenic beauty in an otherwise deserted National Park.

And before we babble about the terrain difficulties and what not, look at the engineering marvels created by the Chinese. This is a piece of donut for engineers. In addition, fears of NHA losing revenues could be allayed with a revenue sharing model between both motorways.

To summarize, there are always ways to bring efficiencies in operations. The brainstorming is worth it. Monetary & non-monetary benefits can be created for sure. That’s what idea generation is all about. Your author is no infrastructure expert nor an engineer & some suggestions highlighted above may or may not be accurate or applicable. The project may cost $250-350m. However, it’s worth a shot. The savings - or even a quarter of that - sound amazing. Your thoughts?

Thank you for reading.
Please share your feedback.