ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is likely to inaugurate Jinnah Avenue Underpass on Tuesday (tomorrow) as the Capital Development Authority said it had set a new record of completing the project in 42 days.

“The prime minister and interior minister will inaugurate the underpass on Tuesday,” said a source in the CDA.

The foundation stone of the F-8 Jinnah Avenue project was laid down by the prime minister on November 5, setting the completion time of the project at 100 days. The project has two components – an underpass and a flyover with loops.

The underpass is now complete while work on the flyover continues and the CDA has said that it will also be completed before the 100 days deadline. According to CDA officials, all 75 piles of the flyover have been casted while out of the 39 girders, 35 have also been casted.

“The work on the flyover continues at full pace and after inauguration of the underpass we will shift more focus on the flyover to complete it before the deadline of 100 days,” said a deputy director of the CDA.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is likely to inaugurate F-8 Jinnah Avenue Underpass tomorrow

The underpass is one way as traffic coming from F-10 will go straight towards D-Chowk side while for traffic moving from Blue Area to F-10 side will use the flyover.

However, sources said after completion of the flyover project, motorists could face problems if no step was taken to resolve the issue of the F-10 roundabout. After completion of the flyover, this project will ease flow of traffic at one point only to pile it up and create congestion at the next - F-10 roundabout - which already is facing a traffic mess.

The sources said that the prime minister during the inauguration of the underpass project may direct the CDA to resolve the issue of F-10 roundabout also. They said that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and CDA Chairman Mohammad Ali Randhawa were already cognizant of the F-10 issue and they had completed their homework for resolving it on an urgent basis.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by CDA on Sunday stated that the chairman along with the member engineering and other relevant officers visited the Jinnah Avenue F-8 Interchange project on Sunday.

It said that Mr Randhawa was briefed on the completion and inauguration of the underpass. He was informed that the underpass, which had been completed in a record time, will be opened for traffic on December 24. The press release said the opening of the underpass will resolve 50pc of the traffic issues at this intersection.

“Chairman CDA instructed that the highest standards of construction work be ensured on all sections of the project.” He said the completion of the underpass in record time was a significant milestone for the city.

“The contractors and the relevant departments of CDA deserve congratulations for completing the underpass within the record time,” he said.

Meanwhile, work on the Serena Interchange project worth over Rs4 billion is also in progress, which is supposed to be completed in 60 days with the completion deadline of January 5.

However, sources said that there were certain chances that the Serena project could face a little bit of delay in the completion.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2024