Mahmood orders clearance of BRT contractors’ dues

Wants double shifts to work on completing the project on time

PESHAWAR: In a bid to speed up work on the mass transit project in the middle of the provincial capital, the provincial chief minister has decided to clear all pending dues of the contractors. The directive comes days after a spokesperson for the project maintained that all contractor dues had been cleared by the government.

Moreover, the contractors have been asked to complete work in double shift, even through Ramazan, to meet deadlines. This was directed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Sunday as he chaired a special overview meeting of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) at the Chief Minister House in Peshawar on Sunday.

Insisting on completing the project by the deadline — though the project is already a year behind — Mahmood directed the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) and the contractors to resort to employing double shifts to finish the BRT project on time.  The PDA director general and the contractors gave a detailed briefing to the Chief Minister Mahmood and his team about the progress made.

After the briefing, CM Mahmood stated that the government will not tolerate any compromise on the standard and quality of the project and directed the relevant department to clear the dues of contractors on time to facilitate completion of the project on time. “It is the main aim of the provincial government to provide modern travelling facilities to residents of the province through the BRT,” Mahmood stated.

He further pointed out that the public of the province had voted the PTI into power with the expectations that the party will be able to deliver development — as espoused by projects such as the BRT. “This is why we are pressing for quality and timely completion of the project,” he explained and directed all departments to coordinate with each other for the speedy completion of the project. The meeting was also attended by the K-P Chief Secretary Saleem Khan, Board of Revenue Senior Member and Principal Secretary to the CM Shahab Ali Shah, SSU Head Sahibzada Syed, PDA-DG and BRT contractors, engineers and high officials of the K-P government also participated.

Later, CM Mahmood directed the SSU head, Syed, to keep an eye on the project and to ensure that the project is completed on time.

Last week, a spokesperson for the BRT system had said that all contractors working on the project had been paid outstanding dues.

He had maintained that allegations of the construction company about non-payment of dues were baseless.  The spokesman had clarified that the Waqar Construction Company had to pay Rs5 million dues to Maqbool Kalson. However, he said that the contract of Waqar Construction Company had been revoked because of substandard work.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2019.