ISLAMABAD: The alignment of Margalla Road’s main portion from the edge of Constitution Avenue to Satra Meel area has been finalised as people of Bhara Kahu, Murree and Kashmir eagerly wait to see the start of the much-awaited project.

A board member of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) told Dawn on Sunday that the Army’s Engineer-in-Chief (E-in-C) Branch has finalised alignment of the said portion of the road. The proposed alignment will be presented before the CDA chairman and other members soon after Eid holidays for approval.

The said proposed portion of the road will also serve as Bhara Kahu bypass road to provide relief to citizens and motorists, who have been facing growing traffic congestion in Bhara Kahu area.

“People of Murree and Kashmir have been facing traffic congestion for years. In April this year, when Prime Minister Imran Khan performed ground breaking of Margalla Road project, we were delighted, but we don’t know what are the reasons behind the delay,” said Javed Akhtar, a resident of Murree.

Nasir Ali, a resident of Satra Meel, said that massive traffic jams in Bhara Kahu area have become common and public vans, school buses and even ambulances face traffic congestion on a daily basis.

During the first week after Eid holidays, E-in-C and Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) will present the proposed alignment before the CDA chairman and members for approval, the CDA member said, adding that initially it was proposed that the said portion of the road will be started from the edge of Constitution Avenue and existing Margalla Road, and will culminate at Satra Meel area, near the junction of old Murree Road and Murree Expressway.

“Earlier, the length of the proposed road was around 10 kilometres and with this new decision of linking the road short of Satra Meel, the length of the road will face some reduction and in the upcoming presentation, things will be clearer,” he said, adding that after approval of the road’s alignment, the engineering design of the project will be completed before the start of construction work.

Prime Minister Imran Khan performed ground breaking of Margalla Avenue Project in April and subsequently work was started on a 10km area of the road from Sangjani to D-12.

The almost 35km long Margalla Road is part of the master plan of Islamabad, but in the past, no focus was paid towards its construction. CDA officials said the civic agency had divided implementation of this project into three phases.

They said in the first phase, the road is being constructed from Sangjani area to D-12 from where it will be linked with Khayaban-i-Iqbal (which is often wrongly referred as Margalla Road) from D-12 to Constitution Avenue.

CDA will not carry out construction of the second phase from D-12 to Constitution Avenue however, the officials said, within months CDA will start construction work under the third phase.

They said after approval of alignment, two to three months will be required for completion of engineering design. Once started, the project could take one year to complete, as a major portion of the road falls in a hilly area (from QAU to Satra Meel) and there are many cuts and fills (cutting and filling of the land for levelling the road).

The civic agency will get begin construction work at the end of August and will make every effort to get it completed before the stipulated time, the CDA member said.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2021