RAWALPINDI: The Peshawar Mor Interchange on Kashmir Highway in Islamabad and the control and command centre of the metro bus service at Rawalpindi Saddar are ready for inauguration.

Metro Bus Project Implementation Committee chairman Hanif Abbasi told Dawn that the seven-storey building of the control and command centre would be inaugurated by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on March 15 or 16.

He said the offices and computer system of the metro bus service would be shifted to the new building within a week.

The building near Flashman Hotel was supposed to be ready in January 2015 but due to the slow pace of work the contractor managed to construct it a year later.

Mr Abbasi said the building would provide parking facility to the metro bus passengers. “Three floors of the building will be allocated for parking.”

He said close circuit TV (CCTV) cameras installed on the route of the metro bus service would be monitored from the main office. “The drivers and ambulances on the route would also be monitored from the centre,” he said.

About Peshawar Mor Interchange, Mr Abbasi said the work was almost complete and after conducting a visit to the site along with the Rawalpindi commissioner on March 12, he would give a briefing to the prime minister so that he (prime minister) would give a date for its inauguration.

About the out-of-order elevators in the metro bus stations, he said 70 elevators were in a working condition and the remaining would be made functional soon.

He said the contractors had been asked to speed up the minor construction work in different parts of the elevated road and bus stations. “We completed the work to avoid water leakages in all the bus stations and the rain provided us an opportunity to check it on Sunday,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2016