Government Tells NHA to Back Only Financially Viable Road Projects
- Suggested slug: nha-financially-viable-projects-directive-october-2026
- Category: Business
- Focus keyphrase: NHA financially viable projects Pakistan
- SEO title: Government Tells NHA to Back Only Viable Road Projects
- Meta description: Minister Ahad Cheema has directed the National Highway Authority to prioritise financially viable projects and prepare a practical business plan.
- Tags: National Highway Authority, NHA, Ahad Cheema, road projects Pakistan, PSDP, CDWP, ADB, infrastructure funding, public sector development
- Original element: explainer context: the directive links three separate controls on road spending: project documents must carry realistic commercial indicators, projects must be classified by viability and funding need, and feasibility work must reach the Finance Division’s monitoring unit early, so weak projects are caught before they borrow
- Sources: ProPakistani (https://propakistani.pk/2026/10/24/govt-directs-nha-to-focus-on-financially-viable-projects/)
- Date: Saturday, 2026-10-24 (meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Senator Ahad Khan Cheema)
Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Senator Ahad Khan Cheema has directed the National Highway Authority (NHA) to prioritise financially viable projects and prepare a practical business plan to ensure long-term sustainability and prevent excessive debt-servicing obligations.
Chairing a meeting to review the NHA’s financial position, business plan and an ongoing assessment by an Asian Development Bank (ADB) consultant, Cheema emphasised the need for clear implementation timelines and an evaluation of the authority’s institutional capacity.
The message from the meeting is plain. The NHA should not take on projects it cannot pay for, and it should be able to show, in numbers, which of its projects can stand on their own finances and which cannot.
What the minister directed
Cheema directed the NHA to include realistic commercial indicators in project planning documents, known as PC-Is, to support their assessment by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP). A PC-I is the standard planning document for a public sector project in Pakistan, and the CDWP is the forum that scrutinises such projects before they are approved.
He also called for projects to be classified according to financial viability and funding requirements to guide investment decisions. In other words, the authority’s portfolio should be sorted openly: which projects can generate enough return to justify their cost, which need public funding to proceed, and which should wait.
The minister stressed that external or commercial financing must not lead to cuts in the NHA’s allocation under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). Federal development funding, he said, remained essential to the authority. That point matters because it draws a line: borrowing for roads should add to the development programme, not become an excuse to shrink it.
He also called for the early sharing of project feasibility assessments with the Finance Division’s Central Monitoring Unit (CMU). Feasibility work that arrives late is of limited use. Shared early, it lets the Finance Division spot weak projects before money is committed.
Why the ADB review matters
Cheema urged the NHA to speed up coordination with the ADB consultant on project mapping, feasibility studies and financial modelling to identify economically viable investments and reduce future debt-servicing risks.
The consultant’s work covers three linked tasks. Project mapping sets out what the authority actually has on its books. Feasibility studies test whether individual projects make sense. Financial modelling shows what each project will cost over its life, including the debt payments that follow construction.
Debt-servicing is the heart of the issue. A road is not paid for once it is built. If it was financed with borrowing, the authority keeps paying interest and principal for years afterwards. A project that looks affordable on construction cost alone can become a burden once those payments are counted. That is why the minister’s emphasis falls on viability and on a business plan, rather than on the number of projects announced.
What this means for road users
For road users, the directive does not announce a new road or cancel an existing one. Its effect, if followed, will be slower and less visible: fewer projects launched on weak numbers, and a clearer order of priority among the projects that do proceed.
It also signals how the government wants the NHA to think about its own finances. An authority that builds and maintains the national highway network cannot run on announcements. It needs a business plan that matches its spending to its income, whether that income comes from the PSDP, from tolls, or from financing that it can genuinely service.
