Flyover may take 30 more days to build

Project director optimistic about meeting the tight deadline.


Rameez Khan January 06, 2012

LAHORE:


The Muslim Town Flyover project is likely to be delayed by at least 30 days, if workers are to be believed. The project director, however, remains optimistic about meeting the March 23 deadline.


Work on the project started on September 20, 2011. Project engineers had estimated that the project would take about a year to complete. But the chief minister directed them, while breaking ground, to complete the project in 180 days.

Despite work continuing around the clock, engineers and officials at the XEN office said that a delay was inevitable because of the size and complexity of the project. One official, who did not want to be named, described it as “much more challenging than the Kalma Chowk Flyover project”, adding, “It’s almost twice the size”. “The deadline given is unrealistic for such a massive project,” the official said.

That the flyover forms an ‘S’ curve – and not a straight line – adds to the complexity, he said. Officials also said that low temperatures were also slowing down the speed of work, especially at night.

An engineer said that another factor was delays caused by agencies like the Wasa and the PTCL.

“We are in the process of sinking the piles,” he said.

When contacted, Sabir Khan Saddozai, the project director, expressed confidence about meeting the deadline. “Work’s going on around the clock. There have been no delays till now,” he said. He admitted that the chief minister had set a tight deadline “but now that the CM has announced a date, we will ensure that the work gets competed”.

Saddozai said that the team had proven, by constructing the Kalma Chowk flyover on time, that they could meet challenging deadlines.

 

Diversion Plans: Traffic jams despite police’s ‘best efforts’  


Despite government directions and Traffic Police plans traffic remains a mess on roads adjoining the Muslim Town flyover.


Wahdat Road and Ferozepur Road at Shadman are the worst affected.

Waqas Ahmad, a resident of Rehmanpura, said that both approaches to the area were blocked by the construction material and equipment. The extra wardens deployed in the area were no good, he said. “We’ve told them many times to focus on regulating traffic instead of issuing tickets to motorcyclists,” Ahmad said.

SP Asif Zafar Cheema told The Express Tribune that wardens had been told to exercise zero tolerance with people who take U-turns and cause traffic jams. That is why the people are complaining about the tickets, the officer said. According to him, 300 wardens have been deployed along the diversion routes.

The SP said that Traffic Police had come up with three diversion plans to avoid jams. “Ferozepur Road is the most difficult to manage since it’s one of the busiest roads,” he said. A team of four inspectors headed by a DSP is in charge of monitoring the Muslim Town sector. “Despite the construction, we’ve kept two lanes open on Wahdat Road to keep disruption to a minimum,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2012.

COMMENTS (1)

Paki-Australian | 12 years ago | Reply

Thank you all who are working on this! We appreciate, keep up the good work.

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