ISLAMABAD, May 20: The newly-constructed Lehtrar Road was inaugurated in July 2011, but bridge on one side of the road has been lying closed for traffic since then.

Two bridges were constructed near Tarlai Kalan when the road, costing Rs1 billion, was being built, but pillars of one of them were damaged, Dawn has learnt.

Mohammad Zaman, a trader of the area, said that the pillars had had cracks due to which all the traffic was diverted to its parallel bridge.

“The damaged pillars have not only de-shaped the bridge but it trembles when vehicles pass over it. Therefore it has been restricted to only motorbikes and pedestrian,” he said.

Another trader, Adnan Ahmed demanded construction of the bridge as it caused accidents almost every day. He said when motorists reached near the bridge they suddenly found it closed with stones.

“Driver try to go on the other side of the bridge at high speed due to which they hit other vehicles from the rear and after that a long and heated debate begins in the middle of the road,” he said.

Mohammad Nasir, a resident of the area, said that last week an officer of a renowned construction company along with his team visited the venue and inspected the bridge.

Zubair Khan, another resident of the area, said that former chairman CDA Imtiaz Inayat Elahi used to visit the road while it was under construction but now no one bothers about it.

“If bridges of capital city cannot be repaired for years, one can imagine the situation of other areas of the country. Condition of Lehtrar Road is also miserable so CDA should repair the road again,” he said.

An officer of CDA requesting not to be identified said that the road had been under scrutiny of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Every day over 12,000 vehicles pass though Lehtrar Road.

“The FIA is conducting an inquiry and in September 2012 it sought record of the road from the CDA. Even the audit officials raised the objection that the Road Division gave contract of the road from Taramri Chowk to Pinstech for Rs690.64 million but soon it awarded additional work of Rs280 million to the contractor which was against the rules but no one has been made accountable,” he said.

CDA spokesman Malik Saleem while talking to Dawn said that construction work of bridge would soon start. “According to instructions of Chairman CDA Tahir Shahbaz, all the development projects will be completed in time,” he said.

“Chairman has also instructed all the departments to cooperate with the FIA during scrutiny of any project,” he said.