ISLAMABAD: Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Thursday said that work on Expressway widening from Korang Bridge to PWD interchange is in progress and will be completed before the stipulated time.

The CDA in January this year had awarded the contract of two kilometer road and Railway Bridge worth Rs2.3 billion to Frontier Worker Organisation.

The project, according to its PC-I, is supposed to be completed in 15 months.

However, CDA officials said that the work will be completed before the stipulated time as it is in progress with full pace.

The work on widening of road is in progress with full pace, says CDA’s spokesperson Syed Asif Raza.

“Moreover, work has also commenced on service roads leading to recently completed PWD interchange. Moreover, work on Railway Bridge and widening of road is also in progress,” read a statement issued by CDA.

Meanwhile, sources said that CDA had also engaged the services of FWO for carrying remainder work on Korang Bridge and this project will be completed in next few months as 50pc work has already been completed by the previous contractor.

The CDA removed the previous contractor after issuing notice to him for missing the deadline.

The previous contractor stopped work on the project a couple of months ago on the ground that price of construction material had increased.

However, CDA now engaged FWO for this project too.

The Islamabad Expressway is one of the busiest roads, which has been facing traffic congestion due to massive traffic load on this road.

The road has been widened from Faizabad to Koral over the years and now it is being widened upto PWD underpass.

The CDA officials said that for widening from PWD to GT road Rawat, the CDA has already requested the federal government for funding PSDP.

Meanwhile, the project of widening and overhauling of dilapidated service road of Expressway from Faizabad to Koral is yet to be started.

However, CDA’s spokesperson said that after completing ongoing projects on Expressway, the CDA will fully focus on service road.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2022