Work on service roads could not be completed despite passage of deadline

[Salman]

Rawalpindi : All claims made by the Punjab Highway Department (PHD) with regard to completion of work on the 6th Road Flyover by February 10 have proved mere a slogan, as despite passage of more than one month it could not be completed.

Motorists and pedestrians are facing hardships on both sides of the flyover due to non-completion of work on service roads, as traffic remains jammed for most part of the day.

Punjab Chief Minister Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif inaugurated the 6th Road Flyover on January 10. At that time, the Punjab Highway Department had announced that work on service roads would be completed till February 10. Now, as the deadline of its completion is over, the authorities in the Punjab Highway Department have come up with certain excuses.

Talking to this correspondent, Punjab Highway Department Superintendent Engineer Farhat Munir, who is supervising work on the 6th Road Flyover and its components, said that the road was to be constructed after completion of work on leaking old water and sewerage pipelines and laying of new pipelines connecting different localities. He said that the concerned department, Water and Sewerage Agency (Wasa), took time in completing its share of work, which caused delay in construction of service roads along the 6th Road Flyover.

Farhat Munir said that if work on pipelines has really been completed, as claimed by the Wasa, then the construction of service roads would be started and completed in three weeks, i.e. by March 31. There was no delay on the part of the Punjab Highway Department, he added.

On the other hand, the Wasa managing director, a couple of days back, had informed that Wasa had completed its work on laying new pipelines and repairing old ones much earlier than the timeframe given to it. According to him, the underground pipelines were damaged due to heavy machines and vehicles used during the construction of flyover at Sixth Road, he said.

After the inauguration of construction work on the flyover, motorists and commuters have been facing great hardships at service roads. As water and sewerage pipes got damaged and water accumulated all over, the service roads on both sides were broken from all sides.