Work on tunnels at Mareer Chowk to kick off on Oct 10

[Salman]

Work on tunnels at Mareer Chowk to kick off on Oct 10

RAWALPINDI:

Work on the long-awaited tunnels at Mareer Chowk on Benazir Bhutto Road will kick off on October 10, it was learnt on Monday.

The project worth Rs340 million is being carried out for free flow of traffic at the intersection that remains choked more often than not.

According to information obtained from the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), preliminary work on an alternate railway bridge and shifting of utility services is already underway.

The authority plans to construct two tunnels beneath the Mareer Railway Bridge. One is for traffic coming from Liaquat Bagh which is headed for district courts via Rashid Minhas Road and the second tunnel is for traffic coming from Kamran Market, going towards Liaquat Bagh without stopping at the signal.

The DG said each tunnel would be about 400 metre-long and the main intersection would also be widened with the addition of one more lane at Benazir Bhutto Road to ease blockage. The project would take six months to complete, said Ahmed.

Traffic flow on Benazir Bhutto Road would not be affected, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2012.