Of recreation: Cable car project put on back burner

Heavy turnover at the top level blamed for delay.

ISLAMABAD:

Every new boss comes with its own priorities with the public-interest projects seldom topping the list.

With every change at the Capital Development Authority (CDA), the projects of public interest initiated by the predecessors are put on the back burner.

During the last two-and-a-half-year, the authority saw some four chairmen and almost every one of them scrapped the development projects envisioned by their predecessors.

The Islamabad Cable Car Project, initiated by a former Chairman CDA Nadeem Hassan Asif, is one such project, which has been put on hold, according a senior official, who is part of the project.

The project included installation of Ferris wheel and cable cars at the Lake View Park, the Margalla Hills and other places. The authority was supposed to execute the project on a design-build-operate and transfer (DBOT) basis after its approval in August 23, 2013.

It had set May, 2014 as the deadline to complete the project. But soon after Asif’s transfer on December 7, the project has hit snags.

“The former chairman used to get updates on the project on a daily basis, but now the project has been abandoned by the CDA, as the new management is unwilling to own it,” said the official.

When contacted, a CDA member engineering, who also holds the additional charge of the member environment, confirmed that there was complete silence on the issue right now.

He said that soon the Chairman Maroof Azfal would be briefed about the project and progress made so far.

The nine-member technical committee earlier had shortlisted four international firms including two from the Switzerland to carry out the feasibility study and provide consultancy.

“Now, the CDA is supposed to ask the shortlisted firms to submit technical and financial proposals, but it seemed the management was not interested in carrying out the project.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2014.