Half-done: Part of Multan Road to reopen on 22nd
No deadline for rest of delayed road project.
LAHORE:
One revamped section of Multan Road will be officially opened to traffic on October 22, officials said, but there is no deadline for the completion of the rest of the much-delayed project.
Officials said that 85 per cent of the three-lane main road structure from Thokar Niaz Beg to Scheme Mor has been finished and the rest will be done by October 22, when Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will formally open it at an inauguration ceremony.
The road project was started two years ago and has suffered repeated delays. Just last August, the chief minister had told officials to finish the road by September. Officials said that the deadline had to be pushed back because of heavy monsoon rains and the dengue epidemic.
The Multan Road Project Management Unit (PMU) has Rs100 million left in its account which it will pay to the contractor, the National Logistics Cell (NLC), in a week or so, said a PMU official. He said that a proposed underpass at Scheme Mor had been cancelled due to a dearth of funds.
But Lahore Commissioner and Project Director Jawad Rafique Malik told The Express Tribune that another Rs900 million had been approved for the project and would be received soon.
He said the project had been delayed first because of the monsoon and then dengue. He said that the main structure of the road would be completed by October 22, but footpaths and service lanes would be built later. Malik said that the Scheme Mor underpass was cancelled not because of a lack of funds but because the National Engineering Services of Pakistan had decided to alter the design.
The original plan was to revamp Multan road from Thokar Niaz Beg to Chauburgi in one go, but it was later divided into two sections. PMU Construction Manager Ilyas Shah said that engineers would try to finish work on the main road of the first section by October 10. He said that the work on that section cost an estimated Rs1,510 million, of which Rs999 million had been paid to the contractor and the rest would be paid soon.
He said that the cost of land acquisition for the project had been estimated at Rs3,578 million, including Rs2,500 million for the first section. “We bought the land for Rs1,400 million only so we have saved Rs1,100 million,” Shah said. This also includes the compensation for structures, he added.
He explained some of the factors behind the slow work on the project. “We streamlined all the utilities and that took longer than expected,” he said. A 2.3-metre rainwater drain had been built in the middle of the road, he said.
The three-lane road will be up to 110 feet wide and benefit around 175,000 commuters daily, Shah added.
“The most hectic part of the project was to clear land of encroachers,” said PMU Construction Director Col Ahmad Saeed. He said apart from buying 76 kanals from private land owners, several acres were recovered from land grabbers.
He said that getting rid of the “furniture mafia” that had encroached on the green belt had been a challenge because of political pressure. “Everyone criticised us about the delay in the project but no one appreciates the challenges we faced,” he said.
The officials did not say when the next section of the road, from Scheme Mor to Chauburji, would be finished.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2011.
One revamped section of Multan Road will be officially opened to traffic on October 22, officials said, but there is no deadline for the completion of the rest of the much-delayed project.
Officials said that 85 per cent of the three-lane main road structure from Thokar Niaz Beg to Scheme Mor has been finished and the rest will be done by October 22, when Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif will formally open it at an inauguration ceremony.
The road project was started two years ago and has suffered repeated delays. Just last August, the chief minister had told officials to finish the road by September. Officials said that the deadline had to be pushed back because of heavy monsoon rains and the dengue epidemic.
The Multan Road Project Management Unit (PMU) has Rs100 million left in its account which it will pay to the contractor, the National Logistics Cell (NLC), in a week or so, said a PMU official. He said that a proposed underpass at Scheme Mor had been cancelled due to a dearth of funds.
But Lahore Commissioner and Project Director Jawad Rafique Malik told The Express Tribune that another Rs900 million had been approved for the project and would be received soon.
He said the project had been delayed first because of the monsoon and then dengue. He said that the main structure of the road would be completed by October 22, but footpaths and service lanes would be built later. Malik said that the Scheme Mor underpass was cancelled not because of a lack of funds but because the National Engineering Services of Pakistan had decided to alter the design.
The original plan was to revamp Multan road from Thokar Niaz Beg to Chauburgi in one go, but it was later divided into two sections. PMU Construction Manager Ilyas Shah said that engineers would try to finish work on the main road of the first section by October 10. He said that the work on that section cost an estimated Rs1,510 million, of which Rs999 million had been paid to the contractor and the rest would be paid soon.
He said that the cost of land acquisition for the project had been estimated at Rs3,578 million, including Rs2,500 million for the first section. “We bought the land for Rs1,400 million only so we have saved Rs1,100 million,” Shah said. This also includes the compensation for structures, he added.
He explained some of the factors behind the slow work on the project. “We streamlined all the utilities and that took longer than expected,” he said. A 2.3-metre rainwater drain had been built in the middle of the road, he said.
The three-lane road will be up to 110 feet wide and benefit around 175,000 commuters daily, Shah added.
“The most hectic part of the project was to clear land of encroachers,” said PMU Construction Director Col Ahmad Saeed. He said apart from buying 76 kanals from private land owners, several acres were recovered from land grabbers.
He said that getting rid of the “furniture mafia” that had encroached on the green belt had been a challenge because of political pressure. “Everyone criticised us about the delay in the project but no one appreciates the challenges we faced,” he said.
The officials did not say when the next section of the road, from Scheme Mor to Chauburji, would be finished.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2011.