ISLAMABAD: The civic agency of Islamabad on Tuesday succumbed to the pressure from the top political leadership of the country by agreeing not only to allow the Punjab government to construct a separate track for the metro bus service in the federal capital but also to use the greenbelts for the project.

The approval was given at a meeting of the Capital Development Authority (CDA)’s Development Working Party (DWP).

The meeting was presided over by CDA Chairman Maroof Afzal and attended by Commissioner Rawalpindi Zahid Saeed, who is also the director of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Service Project, and officials of Nespak.

Apart from restricting the use of greenbelts for any project, the CDA Ordinance does not allow any provincial agency to execute work in Islamabad. “But a simple notification from the Prime Minister Secretariat authorised the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) to execute the metro project in the capital city,” said an official of the CDA.

However, a senior official of the RDA maintained that the civic body of Islamabad had failed to pursue its case in front of the prime minister.

“They have actually created a mess for us as we have to monitor the project in the other district too,” the official added.

Similarly, the CDA officials failed to persuade the authorities not to construct the metro bus route on the greenbelts at 9th Avenue and Jinnah Avenue.

But the mid-level officials in the CDA claimed that the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) was all powerful at the moment.

“The previous top management of the CDA came from Lahore and even the current chairman has had key postings in Lahore before coming to the capital city,” said an official of the engineering wing. “A team is coming from LDA to help the RDA in the construction of the metro bus route.”

However, the DWP was told by Nespak officials that the route of the bus service had been approved by the prime minister in January and it could not be changed.

The technical officials in the CDA had earlier objected that the proposed route could not run over the greenbelts.

The design prepared by Nespak and approved by the prime minister showed that a separate seven-metre-wide track would be built on the greenbelts on the I-8 /H-8 and G-8 sides of 9th Avenue and Jinnah Avenue.

To ward off the objections of some CDA officials, Nespak and the RDA have proposed that environment loss caused due to the construction of the route would be compensated.

“It has been decided that one per cent of the cost of the PC-1 would be reserved for the protection of environment and horticulture in Islamabad,” said CDA spokesman Asim Khichi.

The meeting was informed that the estimated cost of the Islamabad segment of the project was Rs23 billion - Rs18 billion for the route and Rs5 billion for the construction of an interchange at Peshawar Mor.

The CDA is expected to forward the PC-I to the Planning Commission for taking it up at the Central Development Working Party (CDWP).

The final approval of the project is given by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) headed by the finance minister.

“It will be a sort of miracle if any amount is released in the ongoing fiscal year that ends on June 30,” said a senior official. “The construction work on the route can only be completed on time if around Rs20 billion are released before December 2014.”