ISLAMABAD, Aug 25: Although haste makes waste but Capital Development Authority (CDA) seems to be in a hurry due to which it has decided to expedite the construction work on Margalla Avenue and the road will be constructed from both ends at the same time, Dawn has learnt.

According to reliable sources, construction work of 9 kilometers on Margalla Avenue, which will connect sector D-12 with Grand Trunk (GT) Road, is going on since June 2012, from GT Road.

Just before Eid, CDA’s engineering wing was instructed by the management to expedite the construction work of the road and for that it was decided to start constriction work on the road from Islamabad side too, sources said.

An officer of CDA, requesting not to be identified said that although CDA has been facing severe financial crunch but still it has decided to expedite the construction work.“Extension of four lanes, Margalla Avenue is Rs1 billion project and increasing the pace of the work means that we have to double the investments for the roads. On the other hand there are a number of projects which are comparatively more important but management is still not willing to release funds for them,” he said.

“Work on Zero Point Interchange’s (ZPI) from Faisal Avenue to Kashmir Avenue lope (which leads for Peshawar Mor) was stopped five months back but CDA is not releasing funds for it. Now management was instructed to ignore other projects and complete Margalla Avenue as soon as possible,” he said.

Another officer who is a director requesting anonymity said: “Management has been claiming that the road would provide an easy access to Sector C-13, C-14, C-15 and other sectors but it is strange that not a single sector out of them is fully developed.”

“According to my observation there is some land of influential personalities in Shah Allah Ditta and nearby area and there is a housing society, so they want completion of road because as soon as a road will be completed, value of their land will be increased many fold,” he said.

“On the other hand because of tension between government and Supreme Court there is possibility that government would have to go for early elections and for that influential personalities want immediate completion of roads,” he said.

Completion of different loops of ZPI are more important as compared to Margalla Avenue because there is ten times more traffic on ZPI as compared to Margalla Avenue, he added.

Chairman CDA Farkhand Iqbal while talking to Dawn confirmed that he has instructed to start construction work on Margalla Avenue from both ends and complete the construction as soon as possible.

“Within a fortnight, work from Islamabad side will also start but the reason behind it is that I want to make sure that residents of federal capital would see that development work is going on,” he said.

“As far as development work is concerned, priority is given to important projects but all the projects will be completed sooner or later,” he said.