KARACHI, Sept 7: Work on the damaged portion of the Liaquat Flyover is progressing satisfactorily and it will be re-opened for vehicular traffic within a week. The vehicular traffic on one side of the flyover was closed on Saturday when a portion of the bridge caved in.

The city government's oversee and monitoring committee which visited the flyover on Tuesday, collected samples of the material used in the flyover for a test to know the quality of concrete used in the project.

The committee will submit its report to the City Nazim, Niamatullah Khan, soon to know the causes of the damage. It is headed by the City Nazim's advisor on technical affairs, Salim Azhar and its members include Misbahuddin Fareed, Abid Ilyas and Najmi Alam.

Sources in the CDGK's works and services department said that it was beyond one's comprehension how a portion of the flyover which was completed in almost a decade since approval of its plan would cave-in so early.

Recalling that the plan for constructing 1.72-km-long flyover on S M Taufiq Road was approved in 1991, the sources said that the construction of the flyover had begun in 1994 and the contracting firm (Ms National Construction) took more than six years to complete it in April 2001 although it was initially scheduled to be completed by the end of 1996.

The inordinate delay in the completion of the flyover not only caused hardship to people and motorists but its cost also increase owing to price spiral of the construction material.

Though the flyover was opened for vehicular traffic in April 2001, the constructing firm has not yet completed the remaining works which included installation of traffic signals and streetlights despite the fact these works were part of the contract and were to be accomplished along the flyover.

Even carpeting of the roads passing beneath the flyover at main Liaquatabad No 10 and Karimabad traffic intersections had been undertaken only a couple of months back.