ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The Capital Development Authority advertised a Rs1 billion road extension project on Jan 17 but withdrew it the very next day.

And thereby hangs a tale of woes and suspicions.

A week later three senior CDA officers connected with the project and the advertisement were suspended “with immediate effect and until further orders”, but without offering any explanation.

“They did not take my approval to put in the ad, which inundated us with inquiries from the interested parties,” explained CDA chairman Farkhand Iqbal to Dawn.

But insiders alleged that the Extension of Margalla Avenue may be realigned to boost the value of the private property and farm houses in Shah Allah Ditta locality, and the contract awarded to a construction company engaged by CDA 20 years ago to develop Sector D-12 in the foothills of Margalla but has not finished the work yet.

Still the favourite company won a Rs3 billion contract last year to extend the Kashmir Highway by another eight kilometres.

“Margalla Avenue is not just a road,” said a CDA officer, wishing not to be named.

“It is the key to boost the value of land along its length.

Influential people owning land in Shah Allah Ditta and the two housing societies in Zone II stand to gain enormously from the construction of that road,” he said.

Colleagues of the suspended member engineering and director and deputy director roads north of CDA met the fate because they had written against a potential beneficiary to the legal branch of CDA recently, arousing fears they do it again against others.

They say that under the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules contracts cannot be awarded without advertisement and lengthy procedures follow even after the advertisement. They contrasted the CDA constructing Margalla Avenue at its cost for others’ benefit whereas it had turned down the offer of a property tycoon to construct the Kuri
Road which would serve the housing projects of his own and that of CDA both in the area.

Chairman CDA, Farkhand Iqbal told Dawn that he has his own plans about Margalla Avenue. “I don’t know if any politician has land in or near Shah Allah Ditta,” he said.

Member Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Inter Provincial Coordination, Mir Wali Muhammad Badini, however says he would suggest to the committee to see
that the Margalla Avenue project is carried out transparently.