RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has sought Rs310 million from the Punjab government to complete two ongoing road schemes in the city which has been pending for the last three years.

A senior RDA official told Dawn that the civic body had started the work on Rs433 million Dry Port Road and Rs233 million Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan Road in 2018 but the work was still incomplete for want of funds.

He said the provincial government had released a meager Rs30 million each for the two roads in Annual Development Programme 2020-21 making it impossible for the civic body to complete the construction work.

Due to delay in the project, he said the construction cost might escalate. He said that the local residents were complaining that due to incomplete work, they faced problem in traveling on these roads.

He said besides releasing insufficient amount for the ongoing projects, the provincial government had refused to release any more funds.

He said the contractors of both roads were demanding money to carry on the work and said that they had spent more than Rs20 million from their own pocket.

He said the provincial government had been informed about the situation and in response to it, the government had asked to send formal request for the release of additional funds as it had already released the allocated amount for the current fiscal year.

He said the provincial government had been requested to release Rs245 million for the Dry Port Road and Rs65 million for the Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Road in the third quarter of this fiscal year.

He said if the money released in a month, the RDA would complete the construction work by end of the current fiscal year. However, he said that the projects would delay this year also.

When contacted, RDA Chief Engineer Amir Rasheed said that the construction work on two main roads was on-going and it would be completed as soon as possible.

He said the provincial government had been requested to release more funds so roads could be constructed within this fiscal year.

He said the provincial government had also released the funds for the construction of two pedestrian bridges on Airport Road and RDA had also started the work on the bridge in front of Shah Khalid Colony.

The RDA chief engineer said all the development work would be completed within the stipulated time period and RDA would ensure the quality of work while speeding up the work on the project.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2021