LAHORE: The Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) arrested on Monday two officers of Nespak for corruption in the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project.

“We’ve arrested Nespak chief piling officer Sohail Majeed and junior engineer Wasail Iftikhar for their alleged involvement in passing the integrity test of some pillars of the Orange Line Train Project and committed a corruption of Rs25 million in connivance with two contractors,” ACE chief retired Brig Muzaffar Ali Ranjah told Dawn.

Mr Ranjah said an ACE’s technical team carried out the sonic integrity test of the pillars and found their depth not according to the design,” he said, adding there had been this issue with 22 out of total 11,000 pillars. “We’ve detected this problems (in 22 pillars) and fixed it. As all pillars are up to mark, the train project is likely to be completed by December,” he said.

The ACE chief added the government had confiscated Rs900 million security of two contractors involved in the use of substandard material in erection of 22 pillars. “We’ve reports that both contractors are hiding in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. We are coordinating with the authorities concerned and will soon arrest them.” He said the Nespak officers were briefed at the launch of this project to show extreme responsibility.

Published in Dawn, May 09th, 2017