RAWALPINDI: Renovation work on the Rawalpindi Municipal Library has been stopped due to the elections and will likely be resumed next month.

A senior Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) officer told Dawn that the civic body had started work on pulling down the library roof for reconstruction but the election commission directed for work to be stopped.

He said the contractor has been asked to resume work after the July 25 elections. He said work on the Slaughter House and the Pirwadhai General Bus Stand was also stopped.

RMC had started the Rs250 million project for improving the infrastructure of the library, bus stand and slaughter house in March.

The Punjab Government had gotten $150 million from the World Bank for improving vital services in five large cities in the province- Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala and Rawalpindi- in 2013.

However, the provincial government provided the money to these cities as grant-in-aid and the loan will be returned to World Bank by the Punjab Government though the local governments will not return it through new taxes.

Rawalpindi was given its share of Rs600 million half of which was for improving the water supply and sewerage systems by the Water and Sanitation Agency and the rest was given to RMC to improve infrastructure of public buildings and roads.

The senior official said the Pirwadhai bus stand will be made a model bus stand, with new waiting rooms and bus bays. He said all buses will operate from this bus stand and illegal ones will be removed.

He said the RMC wanted to improve the condition of the library and add new books. He said the library halls will be improved and will be allocated for literary functions in the city in order to promote reading culture.

RMC Finance Officer Shahzad Gondal said the library had been moved to the RMC building and will be reopened after it is renovated. He said the work had been stopped for the elections and will be resumed next month. The funds are available but will be utilised after elections.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2018