Government seeks presentation from OLMT contractors

PTI-led regime recently formed committee to review project


Our Correspondent September 11, 2018
PHOTO: APP

LAHORE: Lahore Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) consultants and contractors have started preparations for a detailed presentation to the new government. A committee of senior officials has been formed to review the star project of the previous government.

In its recent meeting, the provincial cabinet, with Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar at the helm, formed a committee comprising four provincial ministers and senior officials to review affairs related to the OLMT project.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, an official working on the OLMT project said although development work on the metro train project were being completed as per routine, the project consultant and contractors had been advised to prepare a detailed presentation for the new government.

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"Since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership has indicated that the government will conduct a detailed audit of the OLMT project, besides other mega initiatives launched or completed during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, all departments are completing their homework as they are expected to meet committees at any given time."

To showcase the progress, he highlighted that fresh footage with the help of drone cameras would be presented to the committee members, along with financial and development statistics of the project.

A project contractor said that the government failed to release any payment to contractors since March. "We don't mind if the new government inspects progress or conducts an audit of the project, but the new rulers of Punjab should also pay some attention to outstanding liabilities related to the project," he said.

He added the project had entered in its advanced stage. The chief justice of Pakistan was also monitoring the progress of the project and had directed contractors to complete it at the earliest. However, the contractor pointed out that it was very difficult for contractors to complete the project without payments.

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"Despite the fact that we are being denied payments of our outstanding bills, we never tried to stop or delay development works as we have been badly stuck in this project. If we delay construction, our overheads will increase and we will incur further losses,” he underlined. “We are already under a huge debt of commercial banks and cannot afford an ugly situation."

Responding to a question, he said though a small percentage of civil works are pending, the project might not start commercial operations will mid-2019 as a lot of electrical and mechanical work is left behind on which Chinese contractors and engineers were working.

The 27-kilometre metro train project is estimated to cost over $1.65 billion, which is funded through a loan by China's Exim Banks.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2018.

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