Kalma Chowk: Design flaws plague flyover project

Shahbaz pushing NESPAK and C&W Dept to finish by August 14.

LAHORE:

The rushed designing of the Kalma Chowk flyover has led to technical faults in the drawings of pilings which has ultimately resulted in waste of material and time and increased costs.

The National Engineering and Services Pakistan (NESPAK) was in charge of designing the flyover. Although, the chief engineer of the Communications and Works (C&W) Department claims that the design had been completed before work started, other officials of the department say otherwise. Officials said the consultants did not have enough time to design the project properly as they were under pressure from the chief minister to start the work immediately.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, the C&W Department secretary announced the cost of the project as Rs2.3 billion. Now that cost has increased to Rs2.62 billion.

A C&W Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that from the start there were mistakes in the designs.

The total number of bridge piers on both the flyovers is 22 with 104 bridge piles (each pier has 4 to 5 piles). The officials said that when they received the design of a pier they started work and as the work was about to finish, NESPAK handed them another drawing of the same pier.

He said this was a mismanagement of manpower, resources and time. It had also, he added, increased the cost of the project. He said they had no option but to obey orders.

He said that time was precious and the mistakes were being made as Sharif wanted the flyover completed by August 14. The departments, he added, had no other choice but to kowtow to Sharif’s orders.

C&W Department chief engineer Munawar Bashir told The Tribune that changes in the drawings were not a big issue and such changes happened all the time in projects. He said at times dimensions need to be altered due to technical reasons. Bashir denied that any money had been wasted due to the changes in the drawings.

Sabir Khan, project director of the flyover, said the design had been prepared as the first study was done in 1992. Since then the design had been revised keeping the traffic congestion in mind, he said.

Khan said the approval from the Planning and Development Department for the project was for Rs2.62 billion, which included the transfer of different utilities worth Rs700 million.

He said the figure had been reduced to Rs400 million after negotiating with the departments.

He said the actual cost would be as the secretary had announced.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2011.