RAWALPINDI: Peshawar Mor Interchange, which was scheduled to be ready on Oct 18, 2015, will take two more months for completion.
Kashmir Highway was on Saturday morning closed for traffic till February 26 as the asphalt work on the carriageways of the interchange started.
The interchange was one of the components of the metro bus project launched by the Punjab government in 2014. For over a year now, the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has been giving the contractor - National Logistics Cell (NLC) - repeated deadlines for the completion of the interchange: January 31, 2015; March 23, 2015; May 31, 2015; October 18, 2015, and March 23, 2016.
Though the RDA has fixed March 23 to complete the construction, the inauguration of the interchange is likely to be held in the middle of April.
The construction work on the metro bus project, worth Rs44.84 billion, was started on March 27, 2014, with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif claiming that the provincial government would complete the work within a year.
Kashmir Highway closed till Feb 26 to allow asphalt work on carriageways of the interchange
But it took 17 months to start the metro bus service. At the inaugural ceremony of the service in June 2015, the Punjab government had claimed that the Peshawar Mor Interchange, worth Rs5 billion, was a separate project and would be completed within a few months.
A senior official of the RDA told Dawn that the work on the interchange remained slow due to differences between the contractor and Nespak over its design.
He said the work on the project started late due to some issues with Iesco, SNGPL and Capital Development Authority over the relocation of gas, electricity and water lines. He said the priority of the government was to launch the metro bus service without a delay and it achieved the target in June. However, after this, the government did not press the contractor to complete the project within the stipulated time.
He said the work on the metro bus command and control centre at Saddar was also not complete while minor work on the pillars of the elevated track from Saddar to Faizabad and water proofing of the roof and walls of the bus stations was also still in progress.
When contacted, Acting Commissioner Sajid Zafar Dall, who is also the director general of the RDA, said Kashmir Highway was closed for traffic for a week on the request of the contractor as it wanted to carry out the asphalt work on the carriageways of the interchange. He said the shuttering of the roof of the carriageway over Kashmir Highway would be open soon.
He said the construction of the interchange would be completed by March 23 and beautification and finishing would take a week or two. “The interchange is likely to be inaugurated in April,” he said.
In reply to a question about the command and control centre of the metro bus service at Saddar, Mr Dall said computers were being installed there and the facility would be completed by the end of February. “In the meantime, the finishing work on the remaining parts of the metro bus track will be carried out and finished in the middle of April,” he said.
Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2016
