KOHAT: Tenders for widening of a one-kilometre stretch of the congested King Gate Road here have been floated and cancelled twice in the past two decades after the contractors’ refused to undertake the Rs460 million project as it entailed excessive demolition of structures on both sides of the artery without disturbing the flow of traffic.

The expansion of the road was approved after decade-long negotiations with the army which was persuaded to push back its markets and vacate the abandoned quarters near Ayub Square for Rs160 million.

Haq Nawaz, an official of the communication and works department, told Dawn on contact that nobody was ready to undertake the project as it required excessive demolition of structures on both sides of the road but without affecting the traffic flow.

So far, he said no decision had been taken to float the tenders for the third time. He said the King Gate project might take three to four year to complete.

The official said had the markets been constructed 10 feet away from the road there would have been no problem today as the cantonment board had plenty of space available for the purpose.

About the bad situation of streets, he said it was the job of the tehsil municipal administration and the members of the district council.

It is to mention here that earlier, the government planned an overhead bridge from the Martyrs’ Square to PAF cinema to help ease traffic congestion on the King Gate Road, but the plan was shelved as its many pillars came in the way of the road and commercial plazas defacing the look of the city.

Meanwhile, officials told this correspondent that tenders for some other city roads costing Rs100 million had been floated.

HASHISH SMUGGLING BID FOILED: The city police on Monday foiled an attempt of smuggling hashish from tribal area to Punjab.

However, the carrier of the contraband allegedly managed to escape from the car.

A statement issued from the district police office said the police checking vehicles coming from Orakzai Agency at the City Pathak signaled a suspicious car to stop but the driver sped away.

He was chased by a police mobile for about two kilometres and was stopped. But the driver jumped out of the vehicle on the Rawalpindi Road and disappeared in the thickly-populated area.

Upon search of the vehicle, 30 kilogrammes of hashish was recovered hidden in its secret cavities. Later, the police conducted an operation for arrest of the smuggler but could not find his whereabouts.

Published in Dawn, December 05th, 2017