PDA wants ‘unauthorised’ excavation of roads to stop
Authority’s DG writes to local government department, slams TMAs for issuing NOCs to dig up carpeted roads
Peshawar Bus-Rapid-Transit project. PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR:
With several roads dug up just days after being carpeted, a frustrated Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) has exhorted the local government department to stop issuing permits for road excavation in the city to providers of different utilities.
In a letter to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Local Government Department secretary, the PDA director general requested him to direct all Town Municipal Administrations (TMAs) falling within PDA’s area of work to stop issuing No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for road excavation without seeking prior approval from the authority.
The letter comes after a utility provider buried its shovels deep into a road in the Rampura-Hashtnagri area of the city and tore up the asphalt.
The road, which had been carpeted just a fortnight ago, was allowed by the TMA of Town-1 to be upended, much to ire of the PDA.
In the letter, the PDA claimed to have registered a first information report against the utility provider for an “unauthorised excavation of the road”.
“Unauthorised cut and excavation of most of the newly constructed PDA roads have started inside Peshawar City by various organisations,” the letter noted, adding that all the affected roads had been carpeted in the past two months. Despite that, the PDA complained that the TMAs had been handing out NOCs despite not having any “jurisdiction over their roads anymore”.
The PDA pleaded that by excavating newly carpeted roads and streets affects public trust on the government and also negatively highlights the role of different government organisations and the level of coordination among them.
“In almost every locality of the provincial capital, men with pickaxes and shovels can be seen excavating carpeted roads, either for laying telephone or internet cables or for water and gas pipelines. These men, after excavating the roads, leave the debris on the sides of the excavation and then disappear. The sand particles in the debris are then blown up by vehicles causing dust,” the letter complained.
Several main roads lying in the path of the ongoing Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) have been dug up by project contractors from Chamkani to Hayatabad — almost the entire city — to make way for the bus corridor and to build a drain.
Last month, the contractors had carpeted a section of the service road along the Grand Trunk Road near Firdous Cinema. But the day after they completed the work, a gas utility company dug it up to lay its pipeline.
As a result, the GT Road has become almost impassable for traffic.
“The service road in our area was first excavated for laying water pipelines. The debris from the excavation was there when the SNGPL excavated the remaining portion to lay its pipeline,” complained Latif Khan, a resident of Gulshan Colony along GT Road.
“Now, the telecom companies are digging up the road as their cables were damaged during earlier excavations. The water pipelines laid a month ago have also been leaking after recent excavations,” Latif said, adding that the road will remain unusable unless the debris is removed.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2018.
With several roads dug up just days after being carpeted, a frustrated Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) has exhorted the local government department to stop issuing permits for road excavation in the city to providers of different utilities.
In a letter to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Local Government Department secretary, the PDA director general requested him to direct all Town Municipal Administrations (TMAs) falling within PDA’s area of work to stop issuing No Objection Certificates (NOCs) for road excavation without seeking prior approval from the authority.
The letter comes after a utility provider buried its shovels deep into a road in the Rampura-Hashtnagri area of the city and tore up the asphalt.
Design changes to delay Peshawar BRT project
The road, which had been carpeted just a fortnight ago, was allowed by the TMA of Town-1 to be upended, much to ire of the PDA.
In the letter, the PDA claimed to have registered a first information report against the utility provider for an “unauthorised excavation of the road”.
“Unauthorised cut and excavation of most of the newly constructed PDA roads have started inside Peshawar City by various organisations,” the letter noted, adding that all the affected roads had been carpeted in the past two months. Despite that, the PDA complained that the TMAs had been handing out NOCs despite not having any “jurisdiction over their roads anymore”.
The PDA pleaded that by excavating newly carpeted roads and streets affects public trust on the government and also negatively highlights the role of different government organisations and the level of coordination among them.
“In almost every locality of the provincial capital, men with pickaxes and shovels can be seen excavating carpeted roads, either for laying telephone or internet cables or for water and gas pipelines. These men, after excavating the roads, leave the debris on the sides of the excavation and then disappear. The sand particles in the debris are then blown up by vehicles causing dust,” the letter complained.
Several main roads lying in the path of the ongoing Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) have been dug up by project contractors from Chamkani to Hayatabad — almost the entire city — to make way for the bus corridor and to build a drain.
Last month, the contractors had carpeted a section of the service road along the Grand Trunk Road near Firdous Cinema. But the day after they completed the work, a gas utility company dug it up to lay its pipeline.
As a result, the GT Road has become almost impassable for traffic.
“The service road in our area was first excavated for laying water pipelines. The debris from the excavation was there when the SNGPL excavated the remaining portion to lay its pipeline,” complained Latif Khan, a resident of Gulshan Colony along GT Road.
“Now, the telecom companies are digging up the road as their cables were damaged during earlier excavations. The water pipelines laid a month ago have also been leaking after recent excavations,” Latif said, adding that the road will remain unusable unless the debris is removed.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2018.