Peshawar Morr-IIA extension: Metro Bus not coming till August

Project faces delay for the fourth time as CDWP okays move to reduce traffic lanes

ISLAMABAD: While the Lahore Metro Bus service had worked miracles for the ruling party in the last general elections, it seems that they do not believe that lightning will strike twice with an extension to the service in the federal capital facing delays beyond the upcoming general elections.

Having missed three deadlines already, a project to extend the Metro Bus project from Peshawar Morr to the Islamabad International Airport (IIA), has been extended again, with completion dates expected to fall somewhere in August 2018.

The Central Development Working (CDWP), which met with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sartaj Aziz in the chair, has cleared a position a paper regarding changes to the scope of the project.

The party decided that only four lanes will be built on either side of a corridor meant for the Metro Bus extension from Golra Morr to the GT Road. This is down from the five lanes previously planned and estimated to cost around Rs16.43 billion.

The CDWP also recommended that the project should be reviewed by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).

The 25.6 kilometre-long extension to the Islamabad Metro Bus project, which had been approved in January to link the new Islamabad International Airport (NIIA) to the capital, had initially been slated to be built by August 14, 2017 — to coincide with the opening of the airport.

However, the project had to undergo some design changes and cost rationalisation. Along with delays to the airport, the project too saw delays and is now slated to be completed in August 2018.

Curiously, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is officially still due to inaugurate IIA next month.

In the fiscal year 2017-18, the government had set aside an amount of Rs8.43 billion for the project under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

The project would have seen the construction of a dedicated, two-lane, signal-free corridor — 9.60 - 10.40 meter wide sections on the ground and in trenches and 22.50 - 23.70 meter at stations. Moreover, a three-lane carriageway with shoulders on either side of the metro corridor from the Golra Morr Interchange to the Grand Trunk (GT) Road Interchange would be built to ensure the free flow of traffic and turnings along with the construction of flyovers and underpasses on existing roads and allied works.

On April 12, 2017, the ECNEC had approved the project at a rationalised cost of Rs16.428 billion against the proposed cost of Rs16.86 billion.

The ECNEC however, had recommended constructing a 10-lane facility (five-lanes on either side) to accompany the proposed metro corridor from Golra Morr Interchange to GT Road.

The NHA, however, had submitted that the ECNEC’s directions could not be fully complied with owing to boundary walls of a sensitive installation on one side on the proposed route of the track. The other side too had restrictions with the Mauve area of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) which cannot be acquired and built over owing to restrictions inherent in the capital’s Master Plan.

With the right of way unavailable on either side of the proposed route, construction of two additional lanes on both sides was not possible.

Instead, the NHA proposed to build four lanes on either side of the metro corridor stating that the change would not inflate the project’s cost.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2018.