PESHAWAR: As only three weeks are to go to see the soft opening of Peshawar’s multi-billion rupees Bus Rapid Transit, the contractor has started dismantling concrete structures on both sides of the main track at Reach-III of the project due to design fault.

Uncertainty looms large over the opening of the bus service as Prime Minister Imran Khan has also expressed serious concern about delay in the completion of the project.

Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Mahmood Khan discussed the project in Islamabad on Monday.

“Delay in the completion of the BRT project is a matter of concern and the government should complete the project and open facility for general public,” said an official statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

It said the chief minister informed the prime minister that he (Mahmood) was directly supervising the project and that it would be opened very soon.

Uncertainty looming over start of bus service

The concrete structure is being dismantled on two main BRT stations to widen the main track on the University Road. The fences erected on both sides of the track have been removed, while the structure has been broken to widen the road. The widening of the track will further narrow the main road for general traffic.

The government has planned the soft launching of the Rs68.4 billion project on March 23.

The Asian Development Bank has financed the project with initial cost of Rs49 billion. The Peshawar Development Authority, the executing agency of the project, has already missed several deadlines for the inauguration of the BRT, which was executed in Oct 2017.

Spokesman for the PDA Engineer Ikramullah attributed the dismantling of a portion of the track due to a minor fault.

He told Dawn that such minor faults occurred in mega projects and it would not cause any delay in the opening of the long-awaited bus service.

“It has no extra loss cost to the government and the BRT will meet its target,” he said.

The spokesman said the fault had surfaced at two stations on the University Road and 40 meters concrete structure had been removed.

He said the main track would be widened six inches more to provide space to BRT buses.

“Adding six inches space to the BRT’s track will ease the movement of buses,” he said, adding that the contractor would bear additional cost and not the government.

Mr Ikramullah was optimistic that the new deadline for the soft opening of the bus service would be met.

However, the officials dealing with the project are skeptical about the meeting of the new deadline.

“Contractors may not complete civil work before March 23 keeping in view the pace of work,” said an official.

He said Reach-I and II might be ready ahead of the deadline, where major work had been finished.

The official said work on 10 bus stations at Reach-I and II had almost finished, while asphalt work was likely to be completed in the next 10 days.

He, however, said work on all three main terminals, including Chamkani, Dabgari and Hayatabad, which remained incomplete, might not be completed before June.

On the other hand, the procurement of busses is also very slow as only 20 of the total 220 required buses have so far been imported from China.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2019