Road project gets another deadline

The long-awaited Park Road Expansion project in Islamabad, valued at Rs1.7 billion, is expected to take another two months to complete.

According to sources from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) the contractor responsible for the project has been fined 2 per cent of the total amount for failing to meet the specified deadline.

The expansion involves the construction of six lanes on both sides of the road. Three lanes will be constructed on each side of the 1.5-kilometer-long stretch.

To date, the contractor has completed six kilometers of the road, with one lane still under construction in this section. An additional three and a half kilometres of the road remain to be built.

The road construction is anticipated to be finished within the next three months, after which other development tasks, including the installation of street lights, planting grass along the edges, and setting up traffic signs, will commence.

Sources have reported that the road has been plagued by severe traffic congestion during office hours for several months, causing significant distress for the 0.2 million residents who rely on it for their daily commute.

Chief Commissioner and Chairman of CDA, Muhammad Ali Randhawa, who had set a new deadline of July 12 for the road's completion, paid a surprise visit to Park Road after The Express Tribune highlighted the unwarranted delay.

He summoned all officers concerned to the site and expressed his displeasure at the delays. Randhawa instructed the project director to ensure 24-hour monitoring of the project until its completion and to devise a comprehensive traffic management plan in collaboration with Islamabad traffic police.

In a separate visit, IG Islamabad Ali Nasir Rizvi inspected the under-construction Park Road project and was similarly displeased with the traffic congestion caused by the ongoing development work.

Rizvi convened top traffic police officers on-site and directed them to maintain smooth traffic flow despite the construction activities.

He stressed that negligence by traffic police should not result in jams or inconvenience to the public.

A CDA officer informed The Express Tribune that when Randhawa assumed his position as chairman, only 35 per cent of the project had been completed, despite a December deadline the previous year.

However, in the past month and a half, the construction pace has accelerated, achieving sixty per cent completion. The remaining forty per cent of the work is expected to be finished in the next two months.

The officer confirmed that the construction of the six lanes along the three-and-a-half-kilometre stretch is pending, but with increased labour and round-the-clock work orders, the completion timeframe has been significantly reduced.