Marrir Chowk expansion faces delay due to slow pace of work

[Salman]

Marrir Chowk expansion faces delay due to slow pace of work


RAWALPINDI: Marrir Chowk expansion project has not been completed despite passing of six months.

Commissioner Zahid Saeed, who is also the director general of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), has asked the National Logistics Cell (NLC), the contractor, to give the final date for the completion of the project.

The commissioner wrote a letter to the NLC on the complaint of Pakistan Railways (PR). The railways stated that due to slow pace of work its freight service to transport petrol and diesel from Attock Oil Refinery at Morgah to Dera Ghazi Khan could not be launched. The PR has decided to revive the service which was suspended due to financial crisis a few years ago.

“We will face losses if freight service is not launched on time. At present, passenger trains from Karachi, Quetta and Lahore to Rawalpindi and Peshawar are being run on a single track as the second track has not been installed,” PR Divisional Superintendent Munawar Khan said.

He said the NLC was to install pillars and reconstruct the bridge over Marrir Chowk and hand them over to Pakistan Railways engineers for laying the track. “We will take 10 to 15 days to complete the track but the contractor failed to provide us a timeframe,” he said.

An official of the RDA told Dawn: “The NLC is busy in the metro bus project after managing to get two contracts and has shifted all its manpower and machinery to the construction sites.”

He said the railway engineering branch was also responsible for the delay as it gave their technical assistance late. The engineers took two months to verify the design.

Commissioner Zahid Saeed told Dawn that the NLC had to hand over the bridge to PR on April 30 but failed to meet the deadline.

“In response to my letter, the NLC informed me that it would complete the work by June 15,” he said.