PESHAWAR: Suspension of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit service was averted on Tuesday after the mass transit’s operator, TransPeshawar, paid Rs424 million out of around Rs1 billion dues to the contractors.

Daewoo Pakistan, which operates 244 buses fleet of the bus service, had formally informed the provincial government on Monday that the mass transit would come to a halt on Wednesday (June 7) if TransPeshawar didn’t clear its Rs754 million payments due for the last four months.

Officials told Dawn that TransPeshawar’s board of directors approved those payments to the BRT contractors in its meeting on Tuesday.

They said Rs344 million was later released to Daewoo Pakistan and Rs80 million to other companies.

Officials claim rest of payments will be made by June 20

An official claimed that the payments were made late afternoon.

“Rest of the dues will be cleared by June 20 after the release of another tranche of Rs400 million to TransPeshawar by the provincial government,” he said.

The official said the payments up to April had been made, while May’s would be cleared by the BRT operator after the release of funds by the provincial government.

He said the board also endorsed the appointment of Mr Shah Saud, a BPS-19 officer of the PMS cadre and serving as the additional secretary of transport and mass transit department for a period of three months as the acting chief executive officer of the company.

The provincial government had given the acting charge of the CEO’s post to Mr Saud on Monday for a period of three months.

Sources told Dawn that board members Dilroze Khan and Ashfaq Khattak recorded dissent against the bureaucratic appointment as the acting CEO in light of the finance department’s policy framework for appointment of heads to public sector companies and autonomous bodies in the province.

The policy framework provides for the stopgap appointment of CEOs.

It reads, “The board to appoint an individual from existing senior executives of the company for a period not exceeding three months within 14 days of the office of the CEO falling vacant. The period shall serve as a stop-gap arrangement and shall not be extendable. It will be ensured by the board that a full-time CEO is appointed within the aforesaid three months,” it said.

Sources said that public sector members of the board approved the appointment of Mr Saud as the acting CEO of TransPeshawar.

Five BRT contractors have to receive Rs1 billion dues from TransPeshawar since February, show the documents.

Daewoo Pakistan and other companies petitioned the provincial government on many occasions for intervention to the clearance of their dues since February.

On Friday, international lenders Asian Development Bank and French Development Agency, which are among the financers of the Peshawar mass transit, asked the government for immediate payment of dues to the contractors warning that the failure to sort out the issue will negatively impact their partnership for the province’s development.

“This breach, if not rectified promptly, will have serious consequences for the ongoing projects, future loans, and the continuation of the co-financing being provided by the AFD for the Peshawar BRT project,” ADB country director Young Ye and FDA head Philippe Steinmetz noted in the joint letter to additional chief secretary of the province Zubair Asghar Qureshi.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2023