PESHAWAR: Workers on Wednesday began pulling down a portion of the Malik Saad Shaheed Flyover to connect its remaining part with the Bus Rapid Transit project’s elevated section.

The two-lane flyover connects the Khyber Bazaar with the Grand Trunk Road and allows motorists outside the city’s limits a quick access to the GT Road.

The only major project executed by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government, it was built in 2007 at a cost of over Rs260 million in two years.

Worker claims three squares, ramp to be pulled down in 20 days

With its both sides closed to traffic, workers kept demolishing a portion of the bridge with sledgehammers, while an excavator was used to pull down the side fence.

A construction worker told Dawn that they had been tasked to pull down three squares of the bridge each measuring 85 feet and the ramp leading to the flyover within 20 days.

An engineering working on the project said they were going to pull down the ramp and three transoms from the LRH side and after that connect the remaining portion with the BRT elevated portion.

The engineer said the contractors were laying piers in the ground parallel to the Malik Saad flyover for the construction of another flyover, which once completed would be used by the motorists to go to GT Road from the LRH and Khyber Bazaar side, while the Malik Saad flyover would serve as starting point o of the BRT elevated portion, which ends near Amn Chowk on the airport in the limits of the Peshawar Cantonment.

An official of the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), which is executing the project, said that only a portion of the flyover was being dismantled so that it could be connected with the BRT elevated portion.

“It was part of the initial plan to use this bridge for the BRT corridor,” he said.

The initial design proposed to build a mix traffic underpass at Firdous side and BRT buses would have used the eastern end of the Malik Saad flyover to reach the corridor elevated portion.

However, the presence of the Shahi Katha drain at the site forced the engineers to go for the construction of another flyover running parallel to the existing one and for the purpose of allowing traffic coming from Khyber Bazaar side to reach the GT Road.

Shahi Katha, a huge drain of around five meters diameter was built by General Paolo Avitabile, Italian governor of Peshawar under the Maharaja Ranjit Singh rule, but the BRT engineers failed to spot it.

An official told Dawn that that they were going to construct three structures parallel to the Arbab Sikandar flyover so that links connecting City Circular Road with the GT Road and other link roads were not completely blocked.

Work on the Rs49 billion Peshawar BRT project was launched in Oct last year.

The provincial government has announced the completion of the project within six months.

However, the issues resulting from designing and planning have clouded the project and it is feared that the project is unlikely to meet the April 20 deadline set by the provincial government.

The PDA director general and transport secretary were not available for comments.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2018