PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to task the Asian Development Bank with finding out the reasons for a long delay in the completion of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project and fixing the responsibility for action.

The ADB, which is the major financer of the Rs68 billion transport system, will also carry out a forensic audit to discover if any subcontracting has been done in the project.

The decision was made during the Oct 16 BRT progress review meeting here.

Minutes of the meeting disclosed that the engineers, consultants, contractor and executing agency’s representatives traded barbs over issues plaguing the project.

The Peshawar Development Authority, which is the BRT executing agency, expressed concern about slow work on the initiative from May to Oct in the current year.

Govt will also ask bank to find if subcontracting done

The minutes quoted the PDA director general as telling the meeting that during the last six months, a dismal six per cent progress in the BRT project work had been reported.

He wondered how the payment could be made to the contractor when no work had been done.

The DG said had the contractor mobilised resources properly and met timelines, payments would’ve been made in line with the terms of the contract.

The relevant officials insisted that work had expedited since the meeting occurred a month ago.

Interestingly, the minutes noted for the first time since the launch of the project in Oct 2017 that the representatives of the China Railway Construction Corporation, the Chinese partner of the joint venture executing the project, attended the BRT-related meeting.

“The [additional chief secretary] expressed displeasure with the long standing absence of [Chinese] JV partner and lack of interest on their part,” the minutes read.

The participants also rejected the Chinese company’s contention that the security issues blocked visit to the project site.

“There’s been no security issue for foreigners in Peshawar for several years and if this was the concern, why it was not raised earlier,” the Chinese company was told.

Not only the ACS took the Chinese company to the task but the project engineer also voiced concerns about a lack of input and engagement by the JV partner in the project.

The project engineer said the Chinese joint venture was equally responsible for the delay like the local JV contractor.

The minutes disclosed that the engineers and consultants traded barbs with the contractor over slow pace of work, while the latter blamed the failure of both to make necessary approvals as well as unavailability of engineers and consultants for timely decisions.

The consultants accused the contractor of failing to meet deadlines and ignoring the directions of consultants, while the engineer blamed him for poor resource mobilisation, substandard work and subcontracting causing quality issues and delaying the project’s completion.

The contractor complained that the cycle track finalisation in Reach-II, approval of the signage on 14 stations in Reach-III, decision on heating and insulation, and finalisation of alignment channels were pending.

“The chair expressed displeasure and deep concern over the slow progress of the work and remarked that such a slow rate [1 per cent progress per month) as shown in the presentation, the contractor would not be available to achieve the already agreed timelines,” the minutes noted.

The engineer also scoffed at the contractor’s concerns and insisted that such petty issues had no impact on project completion.

“The contractors were initially awarded work for six months but after a lapse of two years, progress is still unsatisfactorily slow,” the minutes said.

The engineer also said the project managers were not suitably qualified; no professional engineering staff was deployed, and no shop drawings were provided by the contractor for the approval of engineers.

The meeting decided that the Asian Development Bank would carry forensic audit to find if any subcontracting had been done by the sub-contractor, and fix the responsibility.

The meeting also agreed that the ADB would determine whether contractor, consultants, engineers and employer went wrong and fix the responsibility.

It decided that the engineer would make recommendations to the government for involving penal clauses and liquidating damages on the contractor in line with the contract.

The BRT project was slated to be completed in April 2018 but the deadline was missed.

The project managers kept changing the launch dates from May 20 to June 30 to Dec 31 in 2018 to March 23, 2019, while the project cost jumped from Rs49 billion to Rs68 billion due to the frequent design changes.

A National Accountability Bureau probe ordered by the Peshawar High Court into the alleged corruption in BRT project was stopped by a Supreme Court bench headed by the then chief justice, Saqib Nisar, in Sept 2018.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2019