Iron grills along Peshawar BRT route reap windfall for thieves

K-P Police, civic bodies have taken no action to prevent the iron theft

PESHAWAR: The iron grills installed in Peshawar along the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project route have become a source of income for thieves.

Petty thieves, mostly drug addicts, have taken out rods from grills On GT Road and many other points, it was observed during a survey by Daily Express.

Police or any other civic body has taken no action to prevent the iron theft which presently fetches almost Rs40 per kg. A three feet length of the grill is enough for a single meal, said a tea stall owner who had seen drug addicts spend almost an hour the break one. The shopkeeper said he did nothing out of fear of being attacked.

People are tearing down the grills piece by piece, while law enforcers and civic agencies turn a blind eye, a student regularly commuting on University Road said.

However, officials said they have yet to assume responsibility for the project. “It is not the responsibility of Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) to stop the theft of BRT fences,” a PDA official told Daily Express. He explained that responsibility of protecting the infrastructure of any project lies with the contractor until its completion and handing over.

Work on BRT is heading towards completion at a faster pace. Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has directed the authorities concerned to complete the bus project by March due to which work pace has been increased, officials reminded.

Apparently, there must be people working around the project day and night, then who is stealing the grills and when, a police official said regretting that the citizen just do not want to get involved thus avoid reporting crimes.

The iron grills installed on GT Road, University Road and many other points have gaps. Given the style of Pakistani people to take shortcuts, people are most likely to use these gaps and become cause of fatal accidents.

According to a police official, a few days ago, some of the stolen fences were recovered from a scrapyard and the owner was arrested, but it did not help stop the thieves.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2018.