PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker minister for finance Abdur Rauf Khattak said on Thursday that the construction of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project was likely to be delayed till November or December of the current year.

Briefing mediapersons about the province’s interim budget at the cabinet room of the civil secretariat, Mr Khattak admitted that the project which had seen several changes of the deadline was likely to face further delay of several months.

Earlier, the PTI-led government had vowed to complete the project within six months by April 20. However, a couple of more deadlines also passed after the initial ones and lastly July 20 was being touted as the new project completion date.

However, Mr Khattak’s admission has added yet another five to six months to the project construction phase.

Provincial secretary finance Shakeel Qadir Khan said that the project’s cost had gone up to Rs68.7 billion and the revised PC-1 had been sent to the Planning Commission for approval.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2018