RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has sent a revised PC-I of the Rawalpindi Ring Road project to the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) in Lahore after objections raised by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) about the increase in the project cost from Rs32 billion to Rs39 billion.

The PDWP will likely take up the revised document on Monday.

A senior RDA official told Dawn that the CDWP objected to the escalation in the cost of the Rawalpindi Ring Road and asked the authority to adjust the escalation by reducing other overhead charges, while ensuring that overall project cost remained unchanged. The official, however, said the cost of construction could not be rationalised to accommodate the increase in the project cost.

He said Nespak, a consultant for this project, wrote a letter to the Punjab government that the project’s construction cost had been escalated from Rs32 billion to Rs39.6 billion and other overheads would not be changed. He said Nespak calculated the cost based on inflation. He said the provision of price escalation had been made for the smooth execution and timely completion of the project.

PDWP to take up project on Monday after objections by federal body

Following the input from Nespak, the revised PC-I had been submitted to the PDWP for its approval and would likely be approved on October 14. After this, it will be tabled in the CDWP and then the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for final approval.

The official said Rs1 billion had already been spent on the construction and the project would speed up after the approval of the revised PC-I. He said that the project was originally approved by ECNEC in December 2021 for Rs23.606 billion, with a completion period of 36 months. Later on, the project’s cost was updated to Rs26.969 billion on February 4, 2022.

He said the RDA submitted the first revised PC-I of Rs44 billion and later re-submitted the document after the PDWP asked it to rationalise the cost. Subsequently, Rs32.9 billion PC-I was submitted in May 2024.

“The revised PC-I of the instant project was cleared to be placed before CDWP/ ECNEC for approval. In this regard, the instant scheme was discussed in a pre-CDWP meeting in July 2024.

“The Pre-CDWP decided to extend the…completion date to September 2025 due to the project’s complexity and to ensure quality. It was also agreed that project escalation costs would be adjusted within the total revised cost by reducing the other overhead charges, ensuring the overall project cost remains unchanged.” Subsequently, in light of the meeting, Rs39bn PC-I was submitted with a gestation period of 46 months till September 2025.

The length of the proposed Ring Road is 38.3 km. It will have five interchanges at Baanth, Chak Baili Khan, Adiala Road, Chakri Road, and Thalian. An industrial zone will be established around the highway which will operate at a design speed of 120km/h with six lanes.

During the PTI government, two routes were planned for the project and later work was started on the carriageway from Baanth on Grand Trunk Road to Thalian on the motorway. Its foundation stone was laid by then-prime minister Imran Khan in March 2022 after the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) was awarded the contract of the project.

The PDM government temporarily halted the work and opted for a third-party validation to choose the optimal route. Subsequently, 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 report, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif laid the foundation stone a day before the end of the PDM government.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2024