Islamabad: Faisal Avenue Flyover: Opening of underpasses likely this month

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Imran Naeem Ahmad
ISLAMABAD: Officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) insisted on Sunday that underpasses that form part of Faisal Avenue Flyover would be opened to traffic this month.

Although a September 15 deadline has been set for the contractor to do so, it appears unlikely that carpeting of the road will be completed by then. “There might be a delay of a few days yet the ‘barrel’ would become functional this month,” assured CDA Director General (Works) Abdul Jabbar Melano.

Several deadlines have come and gone yet work on the project that began more than a year ago has only seemed to move at a slow pace. Hiccups along the way, among them monsoon rains and escalation in cost of construction material, have hampered work. The project, being executed along the Faisal Avenue, has now become as much a thorn for the CDA as it is for the public because of its slowness.

Faisal Avenue - stretching from Zero Point to Faisal Mosque - is one of the busiest roads in town and has for long borne the bulk of Islamabad’s traffic but ever since work on the flyover began road users have been greatly disturbed.

Not willing to commit to a completion date of the entire flyover, Melano however said that he foresaw substantial completion of the project by end of this year. “By December a lot should be up with the flyover getting into quite a good shape,” he hoped.

Unplanned road projects: Few of the CDA’s road projects have gone unplanned in recent years that have not only angered the public but also embarrassed the city fathers.

In June, the CDA announced that underpasses, running underneath Nazimuddin Road, Jinnah Avenue and Fazal-e-Haq Road, would become operational in July yet pre-monsoon rains seemingly put back all those plans.

Critics point out that the contractors often used rains as a pretext for projects delayed for other reasons. They cite the example of 7th Avenue and China Chowk underpasses, which too were apparently delayed on account of monsoons.

While work on the flyover inches forward, some of the CDA’s new projects have failed to take off for one reason or the other. Zero Point Interchange project remains stuck, as are the others to expand Garden Avenue and Kashmir Highway.

Currently, Faisal Venue flyover and the Islamabad Highway are the only two projects on which work is in progress.

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