Metro bus route: Bridges to help signal free traffic incomplete

TEPA says bridges will be built once Lesco removes power poles.

LAHORE:

Five bridges of Metro Signal-free Project are still under construction. An elevated roundabout at Azadi Chowk and two bridges at Walton Road have been completed.

In January, the Traffic Engineering and Transport Planning Agency (TEPA) had started constructing six U-turns and two elevated roundabouts to make the Metro Bus route signal-free. It had also started construction of an alternative route to Azadi Chowk. The projects’ cost is estimated at Rs9 billion.

The elevated roundabout at Azadi Chowk was completed at a cost of Rs4.5 billion and inaugurated on July 14.

Two bridges at Qainchi on Ferozepur Road were completed at a cost of Rs1.5 billion in July. Four U-turn bridges and a bridge for motorcycles are expected to take another month to complete although the TEPA had set a four-month schedule for the completion of all the projects.

Some TEPA officials The Express Tribune spoke to said the agency had been trying its best to complete the projects at the earliest. They said, however, that the construction had been delayed as the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) had been slow in removing some electricity poles.

They said a U-turn in front of the grid station could not be built as the Lesco had not removed electricity poles from the site.

Lesco Director (Construction) Muzaffar Cheema said some poles had been removed and the remaining would be relocated soon.

“Electricity supply has to be suspended while shifting poles… we have to follow the maintenance schedule in this regard,” he said.

TEPA Director Mazhar Hussain Khan said the bridge for motorcycles and four U-turns would be completed in a month.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2014.