RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) is starting reconstruction work on Sixth Road Metro Bus Station next week, which is planned to be completed within one month.\

The metro station was burnt by the PTI protesters on May 9 following the arrest of party chief Imran Khan.

Officials said the repair work would cost Rs99 million.

Three more metro bus stations on the route between Rawalpindi and Islamabad at Faizabad, Shamsabad and Committee Chowk were also partially damaged by the protesters. They remained functional but the Sixth Road station has been non-functional for the last five months.

RDA chief says three other metro stations partially damaged by PTI protesters to be repaired as well

Talking to Dawn, RDA Director General Saif Anwar Jappa said that the civic agency would start the repair work on the Sixth Road Metro Bus Station at a cost of Rs99 million. He said the three other stations will be repaired in the second phase in December.

He said Rs34 million would be spent on the repair work on the partially damaged bus stations.

The RDA completed a survey of the buildings and found that the structures were not damaged and repair and renovation work would be done there. He said work will be started next week and completed by the end of November.

About escalators and elevators that were out of order in the metro stations, he said the Punjab Mass Transit Authority had already invited vendors to repair or replace the elevators and escalators of 24 metro bus stations from Saddar to Pakistan Secretariat.

He said due to the closure of the Sixth Road station, commuters from the area had to go to Rehmanabad and Shamsabad bus stations to catch metro buses for Islamabad and Saddar.

He said public transport was not available from Murree Road to Islamabad and the commuters had to hire taxis and rickshaws to reach Faizabad from where they got wagons for Islamabad.

The second option was to go to Rehmanabad and Shamsabad bus stations to get into the metro buses.

The RDA chief said daily more than 100,000 people benefited from the Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro bus service but the closure of the station had created problems for them.

He said within the next two months, all the bus stations will be completely restored after repair work.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2023