ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday laid the foundation stone of the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway (M-6) in southern Pakistan, vowing to connect remote areas of the country, particularly in the Sindh and Balochistan provinces, and uplift them through development.

The 306-kilometer-long, six-lane Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway is scheduled to be completed within 30 months at a total cost of Rs307 billion. It will pass through the districts of Jamshoro, Hyderabad, Matiari, Benazirabad, Nowshero Feroze, Khairpur, and Sukkur in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.

Pending since 2016, the M-6 motorway is the only missing link in connecting the country’s southern port city of Karachi to the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Addressing a ceremony to mark the launch of the project, the prime minister said the development of road infrastructure to connect all provinces of the country, particularly remote areas, was crucial to strengthen the economy.

“Connecting far-flung areas of Balochistan and Sindh would pave the way for economic and social development of the country besides creating new business opportunities,” the premier said. “Without the development of Balochistan, Pakistan cannot prosper.” 

Balochistan is a sparsely populated, mountainous, desert region bordering Afghanistan and Iran and home to a separatist insurgency that has sometimes waned and sometimes intensified over the years. It is the largest but least developed province of Pakistan.

While Sindh houses the Pakistani port city of Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial capital, vast swaths of the province are backward with some of the lowest indicators in the country for education, health and infrastructure.