Deadline of Metro Bus Project extended

[Salman]

Rawalpindi : The sit-ins of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) on one hand have caused loss of billions of rupees to the country while on the other affected construction work on the Metro Bus Service Project, particularly in Islamabad.

As work has been going on at a snail’s pace, the project would not be completed on its scheduled time of December 25.

Metro Bus Service Project Implementation Committee Chairman Hanif Abbasi told ‘The News’ in an exclusive interview here on Tuesday that now the completion period of the project has been extended by two months. It is likely to be completed by the end of February, he stated. However, the meeting of the new deadline depends on improvement of situation, which is not normal at present due to presence of PTI and PAT activists in the Red Zone, he stated. “If PTI and PAT workers as well as their leaders end their sit-ins only then it will become possible for us to meet the new deadline of February 2015,” Abbasi cleared.

The work on the project started to get affected with the arrival of PTI and PAT supporters on August 14, which is till now going at a very slow pace. The leadership of the two parties should realise that the project after its completion would benefit the residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi as over 150,000 people would utilise Metro buses daily at a nominal fare of Rs20 per head from starting point to termination point. “Otherwise the fares of public transport plying on roads these days are very high as transporters are charging Rs40 per head from Saddar (Rawalpindi) to Pakistan Secretariat (Islamabad). The PTI and PAT activists should vacate the routes where work on the project has to be carried out. Currently they are sitting in frames 4 and 5 of the project where no work could be carried out,” said the PML-N leader.

He alleged that the PTI and PAT activists caused immense loss to the machinery and other equipment, including vehicles, placed at the site of the project where work was to be done. “The condition of the machinery and equipment, which are very expensive, has deteriorated. Similarly, tools are also missing from the project sites at frames 4 and 5 at the D-Chowk,” he added. He said that helmets used by labourers are missing and PAT chief Dr. Tahirul Qadri had been seen wearing one of those helmets,” Abbasi said.

However, construction work on the Faizabad-Mall Road section of the project is being carried out smoothly. The work on installation of girders on pillars is being carried out at different sections of the project in Rawalpindi, Abbasi said. He said that they have been able to get stay orders vacated for H-9 and depot site at Peshawar Road where seven-storey building of Metro Bus Service Project would be built. Besides ground floor, two storeys would be meant for parking of buses. The offices of the Metro Bus Service Project would be set up on two storeys and one storey would be used for commercial purposes.