RDA decides to set up PMU for Ring Road project

Unit will oversee spending of Rs30m on the project

RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has decided to establish a project management unit (PMU) for the Ring Road project.

The unit will remain functional for a period of nine months and will oversee the spending of some Rs30 million on the development of the mega project.

PMU has been tasked to ensure timely completion of the design and land acquisition process of the Ring Road.

Apart from the pre-notified project director and deputy project director, new appointments including two associate engineers, a structural engineer, a resettlement action planner, and a land acquisition collector will be made soon.

The further progress on the project would be made once the project concept (PC) II of Ring Road would be submitted to the executive agency by the Swiss firm Zurich International Company.

The government has once again made changes in the plans for Rawalpindi Ring Road project.

Government has decided to construct economic zones around eight interchanges in the project in a bid to boost the local economy, a Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) official said requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

However, the length of the road has been shrunk to 35 kilometres (km) only from 54km while the starting and ending points of it have also been changed.

The Ring Road would now start from the Radio Pakistan building on GT Road instead of the previously chosen point of Banth on the same road whereas the road would end near a site of a private housing society.

The cost saved from the cut in road length would be utilised for acquiring land for the economic zones.

Another significant change in the project was the exclusion of eight-km-long and 12-km-long link roads from Rawat and Tarnol respectively. However, the National Highway Authority (NHA) has been given the authority to construct a link road from Tarnol.

Asymmetrical appointments in RCB

Despite orders from the top, the asymmetrical appointments in the cantonment board have raised serious questions over the administrative discipline.

Earlier, Military Land and Cantonment (ML&T) Director General (DG) Maj Gen Syed Hasnat Amir Gilani had issued orders regarding the appointments on basis of seniority and expertise however the instructions have seems to be completely flouted.

A basic pay scale (BPS) 17 official Assistant Secretary Qaiser Abbas Rizvi has been appointed on the low-grade post of the in-charge water recovery branch replacing a junior official Afzal Gondal. Similarly, a lower division clerk (LDC) Natiq Mujtaba has been given multiple responsibilities as he has been made the in-charge of property tax sectors I and II as well as property mutation branch while two UDCS including Shafiq and Ahmed will be his sub-ordinates.

Meanwhile, the Assistant Superintendent Revenue Department Zulfiqar has been made the in-charge of a small sector of Saddar while another senior official has been appointed as the in-charge of a branch that was being run by a junior official. 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2019.