RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) will this week submit the revised PC-I of the Ring Road after removing objections raised by the Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission objected to the completion date of early 2025 and asked the RDA to extend it to September 2025 due to the project’s complexity and ensure quality.

It also stated that the project escalation cost should be adjusted within the total revised cost by reducing other overhead charges and ensuring that the cost remained unchanged.

It also sought details of procurement and money trail of the spendings. Moreover, it directed the RDA to reduce the extra expenditures to avoid further escalation.

A senior official of RDA told Dawn that the Punjab planning and development department had approved the revisedPC-I. The total cost of the mega project escalated from Rs31.3 billion to Rs38.3 billion.

Planning Commission objects to completion date of early next year, asks civic body to extend it till September 2025

“After the approval, the revisedPC-Ihas been referred to the Central Development Working Party. If the CDWP gives approval, it will have to be cleared from the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec),” he said.

He said Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had fixed the deadline of the project by December end.

He said so far 40 per cent work has been completed.

The project was approved in 2022 and in the last two years the cost of construction material has increased manifold, so it was necessary to revise the PC-I, he added.

The total length of the Rawalpindi RingRoadprojectis 38.3 km. It will have five interchanges at Baanth, Chak Baili Khan, Adiala Road, Chakri Roadand Thalian. An industrial zone will be established around the RingRoad.

The roadwill operate at a design speed of 120Km/h with five interchanges and six lane controlled access.

During the PTI tenure, two routes had been planned for the projectand later work was started on the main carriageway from Baanth on Grand Trunk Roadto Thallian on the Motorway.

The then Prime Minister

Imran Khan had laid the foundation stone at Thallian in March 2022.

The PDM government temporarily halted theprojectand gave the go-ahead after the third-party validation of its route.

A joint venture of Turkish and Pakistani firms was tasked with selecting the route from Baanth to Thallian in the third-party validation.

After getting the validation report, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also laid the foundation stone at Rawat on August 8 last year, a day before the 16-month tenure of the PDM government ended.

When contacted, RDA spokesman Mohammad Irfan said that the revised PC-I worth Rs39 billion would be submitted after removing the objections in a day or two.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2024