Zero Point Interchange: Another loophole on the winding interchange

A crack appears on the main bridge, as the civic agency plans inauguration of the much awaited interchange.

ISLAMABAD:

The Zero Point Interchange (ZPI) project has been nothing short of a saga. Hopping deadlines, engineering faults and contractual issues among others, have kept the commuters of the twin cities waiting for the completion of the project with bated breath.

Just as the Capital Development Authority (CDA) was making final arrangements for the inauguration of the multi-billion ZPI, cracks have appeared on one side of the main bridge.

A blacklisted firm was hired as designing consultant for the ZPI project. Engineering Consultants International Limited was also designing consultant of the Sher Shah Bridge in Karachi that collapsed in September 2007 killing five people, injuring 14 and also causing huge financial losses.  After the Karachi incident, Pakistan Engineering Council had blacklisted it. However, a federal minister defended the decision of awarding the consultancy to the firm in the National Assembly last year saying the consultation contract of ZPI was given to the firm before it was blacklisted.

These cracks which have surfaced on the main bridge raise similar questions about the sustainability of the project. Moreover, some technical and engineering faults were also earlier identified by independent observers and parliamentary committees in the ZPI project.

The estimated life of the project according to CDA officials was 30 years. More than 15,000 vehicles cross the overhead bridge daily.

The ZPI Project Director, Mumtaz Hussain, told The Express Tribune that it was liability of the contractor Maqbool Associates to remove the fault. He said that as per rules, if defect surfaced in a project within two years of work then the responsibility rested on the contractor to repair it.

He said that during the digging process, to make the bridge functional for traffic, sand beneath one of the supporting pillars slipped that caused cracks. It is not a major defect and inauguration ceremony would be held on scheduled time, he said.

The work on the ZPI project has finally been completed, officials claim. The civic agency has made all the loops and bridges of ZPI functional for the traffic and is now giving final touches to the interchange. Anchoring of the hill which supports the National Monument is underway. The services of a Canadian firm have been hired for the purpose, the project director said.

CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi had earlier sent a request to the Prime Minister Gilani for the inauguration of the project. An official in the engineering directorate of the authority told The Express Tribune that the PM secretariat has asked the civic managers to finalise the arrangements of inauguration ceremony by end of this month.

CDA spokesperson confirmed the development but said the exact date of the inauguration ceremony is yet to be finalised.  The contractor thrice missed the deadline to complete the project. The first deadline for the Rs2.75 billion project was September 31, 2010. After revising its cost, the deadline was extended to December 31, 2010. The delay caused escalation in the cost to Rs4.1 billion, which is almost twice the budget initially proposed (Rs2.27 billion).

The project director claimed the loop beneath the monument was not a part of the project initially that lead to its delay. The law and order situation, VVIP movements, rains and shortage of funds are the other reasons given by CDA officials for the holdup.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2011.