ISLAMABAD: The ongoing pace of work on a road to link newly-constructed Margalla Avenue with E-11 shows that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) is unlikely to complete the project within the deadline.

The work on the 5.5km road worth around Rs4 billion was started in December 2022 with six-month deadline for completing it, by June 20 this year. Last year, CDA awarded the contract of the to National Logistics Cell (NLC) against a bid of Rs3983 million.

However, so far, only 45pc work has been carried out and it seems the CDA will miss the deadline with a big margin.

“We are making all-out efforts to complete this project, but you are right, it is next to impossible to complete it within the deadline of June 20,” said an official of the CDA.

He, however, said that the project could be completed in next three months, adding service shifting was one of the main contributing reasons for the delay.

Under the project, the 5.5km road is being constructed from sector D-12 where Margalla Avenue ends, which will culminate at Khayaban-i-Iqbal in E-11. Construction of a flyover and an interchange at E-11 is also part of the project.

“Sub base work has been completed for the road while girders have been constructed for the interchange. Soon, we will start girders launching work,” said the official, adding that with full effort this project could be completed in next three months.

After the construction of around 10km Margalla Avenue from GT Road to D-12, now as a short cut road a large number of motorists use it. While at the length of this road, the CDA has at least four residential sectors and construction work is in progress in two sectors and soon work will be started in remaining two as well. Similarly, the CDA is also going to launch a central business district (CBT) along this road. Therefore, it is expected that in future the road will face massive traffic load.

Sensing the upcoming bottleneck near D-12, the CDA last year had decided to construct the 5.5-km-long road from D-12 to E-11 to avoid traffic congestion.

According to Islamabad’s master plan, the 33km Margalla Avenue starts from G-T Road and ends after passing through the foothills of Margallas. But now it will culminate at Murree Road near Bhara Kahu.

However, the CDA instead of constructing the entire road as per its original alignment, started work on the portion between GT Road and D-12.

On the other end, the civic agency also constructed the last portion of the Margalla Avenue with some changes to the alignment and named as Bhara Kahu bypass.

“Construction of first and last portion of Margalla Avenue is good, but CDA should have paid focus on construction of the entire road from GT Road to Murree Road, Bhara Kahu. This is a master plan road, but the CDA has been avoiding its construction since long,” said an official.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2023