RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has asked the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) to prepare a plan for the construction of an interchange at I.J. Principal Road - between Double Road and 9th Avenue - within a week.

A senior official of the RDA told Dawn that the provincial government had allocated Rs1.95 billion for the project in its annual development programme (ADP) but work could not be initiated as the civic agency required a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

The I.J. Principal Road is the boundary line between Rawalpindi and Islamabad and the CDA manages the road.

Punjab govt asks RDA to prepare a plan for interchange between Double Road and 9th Avenue

However, a meeting was held last week between the CDA and RDA over the issuance of the NoC.

The official said the provincial government made it clear that all funds for the project would be released by it and the RDA would be the executing agency.

The government sought CDA’s help for the acquisition of land for the interchange in the jurisdiction of Islamabad.

Under the law, he said, the RDA had to get an NOC from the CDA to launch the project in the federal capital.

He said the CDA had agreed to grant the NOC after which Punjab Finance Minister Ayesha Ghaus Pasha directed the RDA to arrange a briefing for her on the project on September 23.

He said during the construction of the metro bus project in 2014, there were nine proposals presented to the then commissioner Zahid Saeed to resolve traffic gridlocks on I.J. Principal Road but he rejected all of them.

The official said the RDA had recently hired a consultant to prepare the PC-I. The consultant came up with two proposals: construction of an underpass to connect 9th Avenue with Double Road and an interchange there.

However, the official said, Acting Commissioner Talat Mehmood Gondal was interested in the interchange as there would be no need for digging on the I.J. Principal Road during the construction of the interchange.

When contacted, RDA Chief Engineer Ather Hussain Bukhari said the PC-I of the interchange would soon be presented to the finance minister, who is also the head of the RDA governing body.

He said the CDA had been informed about the project as it would be financed by the provincial government.

He said the RDA wanted to make the road signal-free, adding hurdles such as the metro bus route along 9th Avenue, high-rise buildings and petrol filling stations forced the RDA engineers to make a design for the interchange.

He said the project would be started within a month or two once it was approved by the government.

He said the RDA was also working on plans to construct underpasses at Liaquat Bagh and Marrir Chowk and would present the proposals before the governing body next week.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2017