ISLAMABAD: The Margalla Road Project, which was halted in 2013 after millions of rupees had been spent on it, is yet to be restarted by Capital Development Authority (CDA).

Work on construction of a portion of the 9km road from Sangjani to D-12 began in 2012 and was supposed to be completed in one year, however, after earth work in a few areas, the project came to a halt and continues to remain that way.

CDA Chairman Amer Ali told Dawn that the civic agency was cognisant of the issue and would soon take steps to restart construction work on the road.

“We are going to place the revised PC-I in the upcoming meeting of the CDA Development Working Party for approval,” he added.

According to CDA officials, the project had been started in haste due to political pressures before necessary steps, including land acquisition in some areas of the alignment, was completed. Attention was not given to alignment of the road which ultimately became the reason, along with poor planning, for work to be stopped. An old graveyard also falls on the route of the alignment, the officials added.

The project, if completed, will reduce traffic from Srinagar Highway and other adjoining roads, they said, adding that instead of carrying out construction on small portions of the road, CDA should award the contract for construction from Sangjani to the edge of Constitution Avenue.

They said when work was stopped, the contractor filed a case against CDA claiming for idle charges and both parties are still in the process of litigation, adding this should not be an excuse for halting work as million of rupees were spent on a portion of the road.

A contract worth Rs588 million - 21pc below its estimated cost - was awarded for the project by the authority.

The civic authority had proposed changing the alignment of the road in an area where there was a bottleneck a few years ago, but it was not practically implemented. However, the incumbent management is making an effort towards restarting work on the project as soon as possible.

“Hopefully, in the next 30 days after getting approval from CDA-DWP, we will call tender for awarding construction work,” said an engineer from the civic agency.

When asked if the new contract will be from Sangjani to Constitution Avenue, he said: “We have no issue of funding, but the final decision in this regard is yet to be taken.”

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2020

Opinion

Editorial

Trump 2.0
Updated 07 Nov, 2024

Trump 2.0

It remains to be seen how his promises to bring ‘peace’ to Middle East reconcile with his blatantly pro-Israel bias.
Fait accompli
07 Nov, 2024

Fait accompli

A SLEW of secretively conceived and hastily enacted legislation has achieved its intended result: the powers of the...
IPP contracts
07 Nov, 2024

IPP contracts

THE government expects the ongoing ‘negotiations’ with power producers aimed at revising the terms of sovereign...
Rushed legislation
Updated 06 Nov, 2024

Rushed legislation

For all its stress on "supremacy of parliament", the ruling coalition has wasted no opportunity to reiterate where its allegiances truly lie.
Jail reform policy
06 Nov, 2024

Jail reform policy

THE state is making a fresh attempt to improve conditions in Pakistan’s penitentiaries by developing a national...
BISP overhaul
06 Nov, 2024

BISP overhaul

IT has emerged that the spouses of over 28,500 Sindh government employees have been illicitly benefiting from BISP....