ISLAMABAD: The Bhara Kahu bypass project has been facing delay, causing unrest among the citizens as traffic congestion has become a routine on Murree Road.

The 7.8-km-long bypass, which is part of Margalla Road project, was designed to provide alternative route to commuters to Murree, Galyat and Kashmir.

The proposed bypass will start from Malpur area and culminate near Satra Meel on Murree Road.

Former prime minister Imran Khan had laid the foundation stone of the project in April last year near Quaid-i-Azam University.

However, construction work is yet to be started on the said portion. CDA officials Dawn spoke to said that the project had been divided into two parts, first from GT road Sangjani to D-12 and the second is Bhara Kahu bypass.

They said the work on the first phase was in full swing and around 70pc work has already been completed.

The CDA officials said soon work on Bhara Kahu bypass would also be started. They said that last year, CDA had engaged Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and Army’s E&C branch for construction of Margalla Road and designing, alignment, etc., of bypass as well.

An official of the engineering wing of CDA said that engineering design, alignment of the bypass had already been finalised by E&C branch and civic agency is waiting for draft PC-I, which was prepared by E&C branch and currently is being reviewed by FWO.

He said as soon as draft PC-I received from FWO, the CDA after finalising it will place it before the Development Working Party (DWP) meeting for approval.

“Last week, we wrote a letter to FWO for submitting draft PC-I,” the official said, adding that work will be started within few days after approval of PC-I from DWP.

He said environment impact assessment (EIA) draft report of the project had also been submitted to the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) and CDA will give presentation to the agency next week.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had issued directive for starting Bhara Kahu bypass in 2017, however, no practical work was carried out in his tenure.

Former prime minster Imran Khan last year laid the foundation stone of the project and now once again PML-N is in power and has an opportunity to get the project started.

On the other hand, thousands of people face traffic congestion in Bhara Kahu area of Murree Road on daily basis.

“We are seriously pursuing this project and it will be started soon. We are just waiting for draft copy of PC-I from FWO,” said an officer of CDA.

When contacted, CDA’s spokesperson Syed Asif Shah said alignment and engineering design of the project had already been finalised and soon CDA would get approval of PC-I before formally starting the project.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2022