Karachi-Sukkur corridor promises uninterrupted motorway travel to northern Pakistan, but litigation and pending approvals continue to delay progress.
ISLAMABAD, Nov 8 (Focus Pakistan) - The M6 motorway has slipped again. Work on three of its five sections will now begin by January 2027, the National Highway Authority’s chief executive told lawmakers on Nov. 3. Only two months earlier, the authority had pointed to a November start.
The new date leaves the 306-kilometre Hyderabad–Sukkur road where it has stood for years, with approvals and partial financing in place but no construction.
A driver leaving Peshawar today can stay on motorways through Lahore and Multan all the way to Sukkur. There the motorway runs out. The last stretch south to Hyderabad, and on to Karachi’s port, still means older national highways, slower traffic and longer hauls for freight trucks.
Lawmakers are losing patience. The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Communications ordered the NHA to post the project’s general manager in Sindh instead of Islamabad, so someone can actually supervise the work on the ground. The Assembly’s planning committee heard that litigation had slowed the project. It summoned the NHA chairman and the communications minister for a detailed briefing.
The Public-Private Partnership Authority calls the Karachi–Hyderabad–Sukkur motorway an important missing link in the national network. The gap actually starts in Karachi. Communications ministry officials have told parliament that the existing M-9 falls short of motorway technical standards and counts only as an expressway.
Who pays for what
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council has approved a revised project cost of Rs364 billion. Two international lenders have committed $705 million for three sections. The other two will depend on private investment.
The Islamic Development Bank is putting $475 million into the two northern sections, Naushahro Feroze to Ranipur and Ranipur to Sukkur. The OPEC Fund’s board approved $230 million for Section III, from Nawabshah to Naushahro Feroze.
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The NHA plans to build the two southern sections, from Hyderabad to Nawabshah, as a public-private partnership, with the Asian Development Bank as transaction adviser. The authority scheduled tendering for Nov. 6, set a Dec. 30 bid deadline and aims to award the concession on Feb. 4, 2027.
In April, Communications Minister Abdul Aleem Khan said the whole M6 should be ready within two years. Official project documents put completion of the three northern sections between March and May 2029. Now the start itself has moved to January.
The road has missed dates before. The Central Development Working Party cleared the project in April 2021 at Rs191.5 billion. Ten months later, the PPP Authority’s board approved a private-sector model to build it. Construction never followed. Today’s cost estimate is almost twice the 2021 figure.
Why Karachi cares
The bigger payoff lies at the southern end. Communications ministry officials have outlined a proposed plan to upgrade the Karachi Northern Bypass and extend it as a new M-10 motorway through the Kirthar Range to meet the M6 at Jamshoro. If it gets built, port cargo would get a high-capacity route north that skips Karachi’s city traffic.
For Sindh, the stakes go beyond freight. The M6 cuts through the middle of the province, past Tando Adam, Nawabshah, Naushahro Feroze and Ranipur. These towns have watched motorway traffic pass them by for decades. The PPP Authority expects the road to cut travel time between Karachi and the rest of the country by a wide margin.
Three sections have their money. Two still need a private investor. None has a contractor building on site yet. Until that changes, Pakistan’s motorway still ends at Sukkur.
