Frontier Works Organization (FWO)

Striving for Excellence

Today’s most versatile and vibrant construction firm, was established on 31 October 1966 to wrought a miracle and carve out a modern highway, the Karakoram Highway (KKH), across crags and crevices of the highest mountain ranges of the world. It was towards the completion stage of KKH that the Government analyzed the tremendous potential of FWO in carrying out civil engineering projects in difficult and inhospitable areas and decided not only to keep FWO in existence, but also to expand its tentacles throughout the country.

For the last 48 years FWO has left its imprints, bringing prosperity to utterly backward and ignored areas from the sun burnt plateaus of Baluchistan to lush green dales of Swat and Chitral and from the deserts of Sindh to snowcapped Siachin. Over these years FWO has worked in diversified fields to include development of communication infrastructure like construction of roads, railway lines and airfields; irrigation like construction of dams, canals and barrages; power projects like thermal and hydal; tunneling and mining; telecommunication; construction of residential and industrial infrastructure and proved its unmatched qualitative and quantitative capabilities.

Based on the experience ginned in various fields of civil engineering, FWO has established its competency in handling large projects. It has a large fleet of machinery, plant and equipment to undertake a variety of projects. Its organization in execution /supervision of work, its quick response to accept challenges and the speed of execution and lastly no compromise on quality / specifications are outstanding features. Its genius is best suited to undertake projects involving large scale earth moving, stone quarrying, asphalt concreting, RCC works and controlled blasting etc., especially in projects like:

• Tunneling
• Earthen Dams
• Airfield Pavements
• Construction of Bridges
• Construction of Roads
• Marine Structure

FWO has also brought about some of the following important changes in its organization to make it more vibrant and cost effective:

• Established a separate directorate namely “Planning and Design Directorate” which has inherent capability of designing major projects
• Enhanced facilities for material testing
• An independent branch has been set up to ensure quality control

FWO was dependent on other agencies for survey and investigation of projects, but now it has in-house capability to carry out surveys on its own. The financial management of projects has been improved. This has resulted in economizing the cost of project.

Quick Impact Projects

In the wake of successful operation against terrorist, Government of Pakistan and US decided, to undertake development works in South Waziristan Agency (SWA) on fast track basis. Pakistan Army in consultation with Federal Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat identified three sectors namely Communication, Water and Power for this purpose. In this context a concept paper identifying the projects intended to be undertaken, proposed methodology for execution and cost effect was submitted to US Embassy on 25 Nov 2009.

A meeting was held at GHQ in Rawalpindi on 11 Dec 2009 between US Officials and Pakistan Army / FATA Officials wherein US authorities communicated that about US $ 53 M will be available for the Phase-I projects for which we need to identify and agree upon satisfactory utilization of Phase-I funds. Due to good pace of projects the Phase-I funding has been enhanced to US $ 137.7 Million and US $ 278 Million has been committed for Phase-II projects.

On the other hand, UAE - Pakistan Assistance Program (UAEPAP) was also commenced in December 2010 with the aim of communication sector development in FATA and Swat. It supplements the national counter terrorism strategy of “Dialogue, Deter & Develop. Through this US$ 61 Million program in Phase-I, 2 Bridges in Swat & 1 Road in Swat have been completed. In Phase-II, 3 roads & 1 tunnel are also in progress in FATA.

Wonder of FWO

The Magnificent Highway of Gawadar - Turbat - Hoshab (M-8) – The FWO Wonder

The road M-8 project of 193 km (Nalient Turbat Hoshab) is a major doorstep towards the utilization of Gawadar port. Successful completion of M-8 will link Quetta, the major city of Baluchistan further to Afghanistan through Chamman. M-8 will also assist the economic growth of Pakistan through economic corridor. Due to strategic importance of the road, FWO has accepted the challenging of its completion in spite of its tough geographical location and extreme security hazard.