RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) will put in place a command and control centre for the metro bus service in Saddar in the first week of June.

“To monitor the bus service and other activities on the route and the bus stations, the RDA has decided to establish a temporary command and control centre at the RDA building on Murree Road adjacent to Liaquat Bagh,” Hanif Abbasi, the Metro Bus Project Implementation Committee chairman, told Dawn.

He said the bus service was likely to be launched in mid-May and for a few weeks the buses and other services would be monitored and controlled through the temporary centre.

Work on the seven-storey command and control centre building is in progress. The contractor has already completed work on the five storeys while the remaining two storeys would be ready within a month, he added.

“We started the work on the building six months ago. As per plan, the first three floors will be allocated for parking, the two other floors for temporary housing of the metro buses while the remaining floors would be used for the command and control centre of the metro bus service,” he said.

He said the construction work on Murree Road would complete by May 10. The Parks and Horticulture Authority has been asked to complete the beautification of the Murree Road before launching of the metro bus service.

“At present, the contractors of the three packages in Rawalpindi section are fixing elevators and escalators on the bus stations,” Mr Abbasi said.

On the other hand, the local traders and residents criticised the Punjab government for the slow pace of work on the project.

“The project will take two more months to complete. The traders and residents of Murree Road have been facing hardship as the government missed four deadlines to complete the project,” PTI Punjab north general secretary Zahid Kazmi told Dawn.

“Earlier, the government and its contractors blamed the PTI sit-in in front of Parliament House for the delay but why the contractors failed to complete the work in Rawalpindi section?”

He said the Murree Road was still not travel worthy as rainwater accumulated on it, forcing the traders to hire private sanitary workers to drain out the standing water in front of their shops.

Riasat Ali, a resident of Committee Chowk, said heaps of construction materials were still lying on Murree Road. He said the Punjab government had also failed to improve the sanitation condition in the adjoining areas of Murree Road.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015

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