C&W of K-P stops payments to road contractor

ABBOTTABAD: The Communication and Works Department (C&W) of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Friday stopped payment to the contractor of newly constructed Sherwan Road over questionable quality of work.

The condition of the road started deteriorating soon after its completion, officials said.

National Engineering Service Pakistan (NESPAK) Managing Director Hasan Nassir Jamy visited the newly constructed Sherwan road and expressed resentment over the poor quality of work.

Subsequently, C&W department stopped payments to the contractor as a precautionary measure. The 35 kilometre-long Sherwan Road was being constructed at a cost of Rs350 million rupees.

The work on ERRA funded Sherwan Road started in 2008 and it took around nine years to cover 35km.

People of Sherwan area had protested  many times  against the poor and delayed construction of the road but nobody bothered to hear their grievances of the people.

A social worker and Homeopathic doctor Ahmed Ejaz said that it was a long awaited road project for the neglected and far flung areas of district Abbottabad. He further said that it is a sheer wastage of public money and C&W must intervene, he also expressed his reservations that the road could be  further damaged with seasonal rain if not repaired soon.

Ejaz said that this is the only communication link for Sherwan to get connected with Abbottabad which was being used by the 40 villages of the area.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2017.