RAWALPINDI: The process of handing over responsibility for maintaining and repairing the 23-kilometre metro bus track and its 24 stations to the Metro Bus Authority has begun following the completion of two years since the construction of the Metro Bus Project.

The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) handed over the track and stations of the Islamabad metro bus service from Faizabad to Peshawar Mor to the Metro Bus Authority on Thursday.

RDA Chief Engineer Ather Hussain Bukhari told Dawn that under the agreement for the project, contractors were responsible for maintaining and repairing the metro bus track and stations for two years.

“The two years were completed in December 2017, and we started officially handing over the assets to the Metro Bus Authority and clearing the liabilities of the contractors,” he said.

According to the official estimate of assets, the Rs44.8 billion metro bus project was completed in 2015. The 23km track includes the 8.6km elevated track from Saddar to Faizabad and the 14.4km road from 9th Avenue to Pakistan Secretariat.

The project includes two flyovers, 14 pedestrian underpasses and 13 vehicular underpasses. Of the 24 bus stations, 10 are in Rawalpindi and 14 are in Islamabad, and come equipped with 83 escalators, 83 elevators and 432 automatic platform screen doors. There are a total of 68 buses.

“Although the bus stations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad are managed by the Metro Bus Authority, now the maintenance and repair of anything will be the authority’s responsibility,” Mr Bukhari said.

In the first step, he said, package one of the project from Faizabad to Peshawar Mor was handed over to the authority, and the remaining four packages in Islamabad and three in Rawalpindi will be handed over during the next week.

Before the handing over of the assets, RDA teams inspected the site so contractors would give the final touches to any repair work before handing over responsibility to the authority, he said.

In response to a question, Mr Bukhari said the contractor was not responsible for repairing damage to the Faizabad metro bus station during the Faizabad operation. He said the provincial government will release funds in this regard, and the job will fall to the RDA.

He added that the RDA will carry out civil works related to the structure and installation of platform screen doors and windowpanes, while machinery installation will be the Metro Bus Authority’s responsibility.

Commissioner Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry has directed the RDA to fix leaks on the elevated metro bus track from Committee Chowk to 6th Road by Dec 31 before handing it over to the authority.

The National Logistics Cell was the contractor for package two of the metro bus project from Committee Chowk, and failed to fix leaks on the elevated track.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2017