NATO vehicles caused Rs.150 bn damage to Pakistan highways
December 29th, 2011 - 1:18 pm ICT by IANSIslamabad, Dec 29 (IANS) Pakistan has calculated that vehicles carrying NATO supplies in containers caused damage worth Rs.150 billion to its highways over the past 10 years.
Communications Minister Arbab Alamgir Khan told Dawn that the National Highways Authority (NHA) carried out a survey to assess the cost of the damage.
The survey showed that NATO vehicles caused Rs.15 billion worth of damage every year to national highways and the total damage from 2002 to 2011 was calculated at a staggering Rs.150 billion.
Islamabad blocked the NATO supplies passing through Pakistan following the Nov 26 NATO airstrike in Mohmand Agency that left two dozen soldiers dead. An outraged Pakistan had also boycotted an international conference in Bonn that focussed on Afghanistan’s future and directed the US to vacate the key Shamsi airbase that was used to launch drone strikes.
Arbab said they have written to the Foreign Office and the Planning Commission about the damage and asked them to take up the matter with NATO in Afghanistan.
The minister said roads and highways in Pakistan were not designed to bear such extensive load.
NATO containers and oil tankers weighing 60-70 tonnes use three main routes — Karachi-Kalat-Quetta-Chaman, Karachi-Dera Ghazi Khan-Dera Ismail Khan-Kohat-Peshawar-Torkham and the Grand Trunk Road from Karachi to Peshawar via Lahore.
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- Pakistan needs $1.3 bn to repair NATO-damaged roads - Feb 11, 2012
- Pakistan mulls NATO toll tax - Apr 19, 2012
- NA committee seeks compensation from NATO for badly damaging Pak roads - Nov 28, 2010
- Pakistan Taliban warns MPs against NATO supply restoration - Mar 26, 2012
- NATO tanker destroyed in bomb explosion in Khyber, supply suspended - Jan 03, 2011
- Rs.2 bn for Pakistan highway projects - Aug 24, 2011
- Strike over attack on family of Pakistan politician - Feb 04, 2012
- NATO tanker blast kills 15 in Pakistan - May 21, 2011
- Pak mulls imposing tax on supply convoys for NATO in Afghanistan - Oct 10, 2010
- 11,000 Afghan bound NATO containers with goods worth 220 bln go 'missing' in Pak - Jun 29, 2010
- Two NATO tankers torched in Pak - Feb 28, 2011
- NATO supplies resume through reopened Pak-Afghan border - Oct 11, 2010
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