Peshawar Mor to IIA: Govt releases Rs1 billion for metro bus extension project

Commuters urge govt to complete the project as soon as possible

ISLAMABAD: Nearly six months on from its last completion date expired, the government has released around a billion rupees in hopes that the cash injection will provide the impetus to extend the Metro Bus project from Peshawar Morr to the new Islamabad International Airport (IIA).

The money has been released under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2018-19.

The government had planned to build the 25.6-kilometre extension of the metro bus to the new airport to facilitate travellers who otherwise complain of high cab fares between Rs500 to Rs1,200.

The project had been set in motion in January 2017 and was slated to be completed in August of that year to coincide with what was the original inauguration date for the IIA. However, as the inauguration date for the airport got pushed back, so did too the deadline to complete the metro bus extension — which did not see work on it begin until April 2017.

While the airport’s opening was delayed owing to some construction and political crisis — particularly those surrounding deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif who was supposed to inaugurate it — the metro bus project had to undergo some design changes and cost rationalisation. Even as the airport was inaugurated by former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in May 2018, the deadline for the metro bus extension was pushed to August 2018. However, it has been nearly six months since that deadline as well.

The entire project was estimated to cost Rs16.46 billion to build. Until June 2018, planning ministry data shows that Rs6.46 billion have so far been spent on the project.

The data further shows that the government has allocated Rs2.5 billion for the project under the PSDP for 2018-19.

To ensure the timely completion, the project had been divided into four packages including package-I, an eight-kilometre-long stretch from Peshawar Mor to the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), package-II is a 3.8km-long stretch from NUST to the Grand Trunk (GT) Road. Package-III is an 8.3kim-long stretch from GT road to the Motorway interchange.

Package-IV is a 5.5km-long stretch from the motorway Interchange to the new airport.

The route will have nine bus stations including one at NHA station, one at Sector G-10, one at NUST, Sector G-13, GT Road, Badana Kalan, M-1-M2 Junction and at the airport.

The project comprises eight bridges, 14 underpasses and 28 culverts. The project would have seen the construction of a dedicated, two-lane, signal-free corridor with 9.6–10.4 meter-wide sections on the ground and in trenches and 22.5 – 23.7 metre-wide at the stations. Moreover, a three-lane carriageway with shoulders on either side of the metro corridor from the Golra Morr Interchange to the 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.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2019.