National Motorway M-4 Gojra–Shorkot Section Project and National Motorway M–4 Gojra–Shorkot–Khanewal Section Project - Additional
Financing

Enhanced project readiness filters need to be applied to future projects to minimize or avoid the challenges encountered in this project, which commonly occur in
infrastructure projects. These challenges included (i) insufficient construction equipment at the work sites; (ii) contractors’ chronic working capital shortages; (iii) non-payment of local contractors and/or suppliers, resulting in shortages (e.g., of materials and fuel); and (iv) a lack of capacity for efficient project management
on the part of contractors. Additionally, prior to loan approval, sections II and III suffered from land acquisition and resettlement issues that compromised project readiness; thus, these projects could not be included in the MFF, and were consequently implemented as standalone projects. The executing agency, the National Highway Authority (NHA) took longer than expected to approve contract variations in the form of variation orders and time extensions (an additional layer of due diligence carried out at NHA headquarters contributed to this delay).