Consultant to be hired for valuation of RR project

RDA has started the process to hire consultants for third-party valuation

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has decided to hire a consultant to conduct a third-party valuation of the Rawalpindi Ring Road project, a component of the economic corridor.

RDA, the executing agency of the project, has started the process to hire consultants for third-party valuation. The consultant will make recommendations regarding project modification and route change for the economic corridor. The final decision on the changes will be taken by the competent authority and the Planning Commission.

It may be noted that the RDA, acting on Section 59E of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules, could award contracts only to government-backed construction companies.

Subsequently, RDA awarded the project contract to Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) for Rs 22.80 billion. Under the project, a 38.8km-long route from GT Road Banth to Thalian Motorway Interchange is to be completed by the contractor in two years.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan had earlier laid the formal foundation stone of the project. The Rawalpindi Ring Road, which has been named N5, was once extended from 38.8 km to 64 km in the previous government.

However, this project was stopped by the previous government after an alleged corruption scandal was revealed. After the arrests in the anti-corruption case, Commissioner Rawalpindi Capt (Retd) Muhammad Mehmood and Land Acquisition Collector Waseem Tabish and others were acquitted by the court as the charges could not be proved.

Sources say that now due to the third-party valuation of the project, the project will not only become part of the economic corridor, but its route may also be changed and its length increased.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2022.