ISLAMABAD: Despite being around 90pc complete, the Islamabad Metro Bus Project (IMBP) appears to have become the capital’s answer to the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) situation in Peshawar, with the government giving little attention to finishing the project.

Civil work on the project was completed nearly a year ago, and has been deteriorating in harsh weather since then. The only work being carried out to finish the project is the finishing of bus stations by contractors.

The National Highway Authority (NHA), which is the project’s executing agency, has claimed that it will be completed by March this year but this does not include the plying of buses. But contractors engaged in the project believe that this is an unrealistic deadline because many issues, including their unpaid dues, have not been resolved. They said the project would likely be completed by June or July.

It is believed that the government will complete the IMBP after it completes the BRT, which will likely be finished by next month, because the PTI launched the BRT when it was in opposition in the centre – during the last PML-N government – but ruling in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Metro bus project from Peshawar Mor to IIA around 90pc complete

When contacted, Communication Secretary Jawwad Rafique Malik said he presided over a meeting on the metro project on Wednesday and set March as the deadline for completion.

He said that if any of the already completed work has been affected by harsh weather, the contractors were responsible for rectifyingit when handing the project over to the NHA.

“We will complete the project by March and hand it over to any other department – maybe the Capital Development Authority or the Punjab government – to run the buses,” Mr Malik said.

Even if the IMBP is completed by March, he said, the metro bus service will not be in operation because buses have to be purchased in the second phase of the project.

Mr Malik expressed surprise that the NHA was not completing the project even though it had received funds in this regard.

One of the contractors told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the NHA was not resolving a number of issues facing contractors and was not meeting the contract’s clauses and obligations.

“The authority is not paying contractors’ dues, it is not meeting escalation requirements and not matching the devaluation of the rupee against the dollar in the overall cost of the project,” the contractor said.

Another contractor said he attended the meeting referenced earlier by the communication secretary, in which the secretary was informed that the March deadline could not be met unless contractors’ issues are addressed.

The Ministry of Interior and the Punjab government have agreed to run the IMBP together.

The initial deadline for the project was December 2017, set by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who launched the project in June 2017.

An NHA official said that although the implementable completion time was June 2018, it was delayed and no new completion date has been fixed.

However, a senior NHA official told Dawn that the authority could complete the project’s infrastructure – the track and bus stations – in four months provided the government releases the necessary funds.

The project is divided into four sections, and because of unpaid dues contractors of all four sections have stopped working and their sub-contractors and labourers have left the work sites.

The estimated cost of the 26 kilometre project, from Peshawar Mor to Islamabad International Airport, was more than Rs18 billion. It is believed that it will be completed in Rs14bn and Rs4bn will be saved. It includes eight stations; seven on Kashmir Highway and one at the airport.

According to official figures, the 8km package-I is 90pc complete, the 3.8km package-II is 85pc complete and the 8.3km package-III and 5.4km package-IV are almost complete.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2020