A FORMER Bolton College graduate has overseen a £65m highways project.

Former Civil Engineering HNC student Suleman Mukhtar graduated from the College’s specialist professional building department in 2016, and his career has been on an upward trajectory ever since.

Now a project manager at National Highways, Mr Mukhtar has recently been responsible for the completion of a scheme to widen both carriageways of the A19, with the objective of reducing congestion and noise pollution.

Having previously worked at Jacobs Engineering in Manchester, working on large civil infrastructure projects often onsite at Manchester Airport, Mr Mukhtar since joined the National Highways £1bn Highway project in the North East Region in 2018, where he was tasked with dualling single lane sections of a 50 mile highway.

A promotion to Project Manager later, he is still grateful for the experiences he gained as part of his education. "Bolton College helped lay the foundations for what is now my ongoing career success. I can't thank the College enough; reaching this milestone was a proud moment for me and it should be for the College too," he said.

Lawrence Atherton, a Professional Building Lecturer at the College, added: "What a fabulous achievement for Suleman and for us too. Suleman put so much hard work into his studies and fully deserves his success.

"It always gives us real satisfaction when we hear success stories like Suleman's - he's a role model, and on behalf of the whole team, we wish Suleman continued success in his career."