Road works: Work on Peco Road to begin from January

Rs120m released to TEPA for first major revamp of road in 20 years.

LAHORE:

The government has decided to rehabilitate the crumbling Peco Road and handed the Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (TEPA) the job of doing the first major repairs on the road for over 20 years.

Tepa Director Mazhar Khan said that the agency had already received Rs120 million for the project and would complete the tendering process after the Ashura. “Work on the ground could begin in the first week of the new year,” he said.

Peco Road is a dual carriage way, separated by a drain, which connects Ferozepur Road to Township.

The dilapidated road has been patched up on several occasions, but not been properly rehabilitated for a long time. Adjoining roads including Maulana Shukat Ali Road and Madre Millat Road have also recently been rehabilitated.

The revamp of Peco Road is expected to lighten the traffic load on Ferozepur Road by giving an alternative route to vehicles travelling towards Model Town or Thokar Niaz Beg from the south.

Khan said that Peco Road was about 1.9 km long, from the railways crossing below Kot Lakhpat Bridge to the roundabout connecting it to Maulana Shaukat Ali Road. He said the road would be 30-feet wide on both sides. A service lane will be built on one side, but not on the other because it is covered by a rail line. Parking lanes will also be built.

The drain will be reconstructed and covered by a green belt about 32 feet wide. The road lanes will be marked and street lights will be installed, he added.

Peco Road runs parallel to a railway line. Khan said that Tepa could not expand the side of the road closest to the line as that land belongs to Pakistan Railways.

The Tepa director said that the agency had been put in charge of the project rather than the Gulberg Town Municipal Administration (TMA) because the latter had been ignoring the road.

Another Tepa official said that the roads built under the TMAs’ supervision were often of poor quality because local municipal authorities were more susceptible to political influence and bribery when it came to awarding contracts. “There is political influence on Tepa too when it comes to awarding of contracts, but still the quality of roads is much better,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2011.