The Swat Motorway is a 160-kilometre-long (99 mi) four-lane motorway and provincial controlled-access highway in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Phase-1 of the project, completed in June 2019, connects the existing M-1 motorway at Nowshera to Chakdara while the under-construction second phase will extend the project to Fatehpur.
The phase-1 of motorway stretches from Nowshera to Chakdara in Lower Dir District, passing through Swabi, Mardan, Malakand and Swat districts. The phase-1 of the project was inaugurated in August 2016.[4] and opened for traffic on 3 June 2019[5] The phase-1 reduced the travel time from Nowshera to Chakdara from three hours to one hour. The Swat motorway phase-1 was constructed by the Frontier Works Organization at a cost of Rs. 36 billion (US$120 million).[6][7] The Asian Development Bank and China provided the principal technical and financial assistance for the project, while Saudi Arabia pledged Rs. 3.4 billion (US$12 million).[8][9]
Phase two of the motorway will extend another 79 kilometers to the north and terminate at Fatehpur. It will pass through Chakdara, Shamozai, Barikot, Mingora, Kanju, Malam Jabba, Sher Palam, Matta Khwazakhela, and ends at Madayan-Fatehpur Interchange. On 16 July 2020, ECNEC approved land acquisition for Swat Motorway Phase-II at a cost of Rs. 20 bn. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government allocated Rs. 70 bn. for the extension[10] The Swat motorway or M-16 should not be confused with the E90 Expressway (Besham-Khwazakhela Expressway) proposed by the National Highway Authority, which also terminates in Swat.