LAHORE: Ninety-five percent of the work at the Rs3.6bn flyover connecting Gulberg with Bab-e-Pakistan (Walton Road) has been completed.

The six-lane flyover, named Central Business District (CBD) Bridge, crossing over the existing the Pakistan Railways’ Main Line-1 (ML-1) is a part of the Rs17bn mega infrastructural works, including the CBD square, boulevard etc which are currently underway to develop the country’s first skyscrapers zone in Lahore. The under-construction 300 feet wide main boulevard from Kalma Chowk to Walton Road (Bab-e-Pakistan) has been named as Route-47 in remembrance of Quaid-i-Azam’s visit to Walton in 1947, Dawn has learnt.

“The flyover is almost ready as the only work which remains is laying asphalt that will start in a day or two and complete till Dec 20 or so. You can say that by the end of this month, this almost 1km long flyover will be completed and opened to traffic by all means,” Punjab Central Business District Development Authority Executive Engineer (Technical) Riaz Hussain explained while talking to Dawn on Sunday.

“With completion of this bridge, the CBD boulevard/square project will also almost complete, connecting Gulberg with Walton Road where several rehabilitation-related works are also set to be completed by Dec 30,” he added.

The flyover to connect Kalma Chowk with Walton Road

According to a document, the project is being executed by the PCBDDA through National Logistics Cell (NLC)—the contractor under consultancy services of the National Engineering Services Pakistan. At present, all 148 piles, nine pile caps, four abutments, 10 piers, five transoms, 168 girders and seven deck slabs have been completed. The design speed of the flyover has been fixed as 50km per hour.

The PCBDDA executive engineer said the project is the first of its kind in Lahore passing through the future skyscraper zone of the provincial capital.

“Route-47 is a new commercial city being developed within the city of Lahore,” he maintained, adding that the bridge starts exactly 3km after the originating point of CBD Square (Kalma Chowk) and concludes at Bab-e-Pakistan (Walton Road). According to him, the project would also reduce traffic burden on the Ferozepur Road and Main Boulevard, Gulberg.

GAS/POWER PILFERAGE: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd on Sunday disconnected another 611 connections on account of gas pilferage and other illegalities besides imposing Rs3.8m fine on them.

According to a spokesman, in Lahore, the SNGPL teams disconnected 14 illegal connections and imposed fines amounting to Rs1.66m. The Faisalabad regional team severed five illegal connections, addressed one compressor-related violation, and imposed fines of Rs0.02m. Similarly, in Sheikhupura, fines of Rs1.34m were levied on the offenders involved in gas pilferage. The Gujranwala region saw one illegal connection disconnected, with fines amounting to Rs0.61m imposed on the violators. In Bahawalpur, the company disconnected one illegal connection and addressed 23 compressor-related cases while in Multan, 23 illegal connections were severed during the raids. In Sahiwal, the SNGPL disconnected one illegal connection and one compressor-related case, imposing fines totaling Rs0.23m.

Meanwhile, the Lesco administration on Sunday claimed to have detected 168,657 power pilferers so far during the ongoing campaign launched in September, last year. The Lesco spokesman told the media that the company submitted FIR applications against electricity thieves, out of which 157,312 FIRs were registered with respective police stations while 44,918 accused were arrested by the respective police so far. During the anti-power theft campaign, the spokesman added, large commercial consumers were also found involved in electricity theft. Among the seized connections, 5,204 commercial, 1,653 agricultural, 348 industrial and 161,452 domestic, and all of them were also disconnected and charged with detection units. All these connections were disconnected and charged with a total of 176.198 million units worth Rs6.6bn.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2024