ISLAMABAD: After a cold shoulder from the federal government regarding the widening of the Islamabad Expressway, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to construct a bridge and an underpass on the expressway instead.

The CDA had asked the government for Rs10 billion to widen the expressway from Koral to the G.T. Road, but the government only allocated Rs450 million for the project in the proposed budget for the 2019-20 fiscal year.

Sources said CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed met with engineers on Thursday to discuss deferring the widening projects and instead building the Korang Bridge and an underpass near the PWD stopto provide immediate relief to citizens who face traffic congestion every day.

The meeting also discussed necessary widening of the seven kilometre stretch from Koral to Naval Anchorage by the CDA.

Sources said that the meeting discussed that the government will release Rs450m in the next fiscal year, and the CDA would contribute another Rs450m to Rs600m of its own money to build the bridge and underpass and for the partial widening and repairs on a portion of the road.

They said it was decided that the CDA would carry out the full-fledged widening to the G.T. Road in the next phase.

“We are planning to at least start construction on Korang Bridge and an underpass at PWD stop to provide immediate relief to citizens,” CDA spokesperson Syed Safdar Ali said, adding that the authority will properly widen the expressway at a later stage.

“We are not going to shelve the project for good. Rather, we have prioritised the work; in the initial stage we will construct the bridge and underpass with necessary widening of the road, then at a later stage we will go for full-fledged widening of the 13km road from Koral to the G.T. Road,” Mr Ali said.

He added that in addition to the government’s funding of Rs450m promised in the budget, the CDA is also planning to share its own funding.

“Although a final decision has yet to be made, it is clear that we cannot ignore this important road so we have decided to take whatever steps we can... We are hopeful that the problem of traffic congestion will be reduced after the construction of Korang Bridge and an underpass,” he said.

Last year, the PML-N government approved Rs10.7bn for the project and earmarked Rs7bn for the 2018-19 fiscal year with a commitment that Rs2.75bn would be allocated in the 2019-20 fiscal year budget.

The PTI government, however, dropped all projects that did not have proper technical approval from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), including the widening of the expressway.

This year, the CDA once again sought Rs10bn from the government, but the government only allocated Rs450m.

The widening of the expressway was inaugurated by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in July 2015. Under the original PC-I, the expressway was to be widened to five lanes from Zero Point to the G.T. Road in Rawat, linking into the Motorway-II, within two years in order to make signal-free corridor. The expressway has already been widened from Zero Point to Koral.

It was initially decided that the CDA would expand the existing four lanes from the Koral interchange to Naval Anchorage to eight by adding two rigid lanes and rehabilitating flexible lanes.

Three bridges – at Korang, Bhinder and the Railways stop – will also be constructed, as well service roads. In the final package, the existing four lanes are to be widened to eight, the Soan Bridge will be widened and a flyover will be constructed at the G.T. Road. Two underpasses, on the Kahuta and Japan roads, will also be built.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2019