Eye to eye: CDA flinches, army depot to stay

Golra depot is on encroached land that Kashmir Highway would have run through.

ISLAMABAD:

Realignment of a portion of the under-construction Kashmir Highway extension has been approved after a sensitive agency refused to remove the boundary wall of a depot established on encroached land.

During a confidential meeting held recently at the Capital Development Authority (CDA), representatives of the agency stated several reasons for not removing the army depot’s boundary wall which falls within the original alignment of the proposed highway.

After the meeting, CDA Chairman Nadeem Hasan Asif asked the authority’s planning and design wing to initiate work on the realignment of the portion near Golra Mor.



“They informed the CDA that there are sensitive installations within the depot’s premises and it is not feasible to relocate them,” said a CDA official requesting anonymity.

Following this development, the authority on Tuesday sought applications from construction firms to undertake work on section-III of the highway where the depot is located. Work on section-I and section-II is already in progress.

Section-III involves the construction of three lanes on each side of the existing four-lane road between Golra Mor and GT Road.

“Three lanes, two rigid lanes for heavy traffic and one flexible lane for light traffic, will be added to both sides of the existing road. The total length of this section of the highway is approximately 2.5 kilometres and will be completed by November 2014,” Kashmir Highway Project Director Shahid Mehmood said.

In July 2013, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council had approved Rs4.689 billion revised PC-I for the Kashmir Highway Widening Project.



The project’s funding was approved on an equal partnership, with the federal government covering half the cost — Rs2.34 billion — while the other half would be self-financed by CDA.

The construction of the 11.068 kilometre highway was taken up by the authority in three phases — section-I from Peshawar Mor to Golra Mor, section-II from Golra Mor to Peshawar Mor, and section-III from Golra Mor to GT Road.

On February 12, 2011, two firms were awarded contracts for section-I and section-II of the project.

The contract amount for was agreed at Rs1.649 billion for section-I and Rs1.7 billion for section-II. The completion date for both packages was February 11, 2013 but was later extended to November 2013, and now has further been extended to July 2014.

The release of Rs314 million by the federal government for the project in the last week has accelerated the pace of work on the under-construction section-I and II. “35 per cent work on section-I is complete, while around 50 per cent on section-II,” said Mehmood.

The federal government has yet to release Rs1.4 billion out of the promised Rs2.34 billion.

The CDA chairman was not available for comment, but, a few months ago while talking to The Express Tribune, he had said, “The issue will be resolved through mutual understanding,” when asked if the authority would consider realigning the road if the army refuses to demolish the depot.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2013.