SC orders OLMT completed by May 20

Ag APP

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday expressed annoyance over the delay in the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project and ordered construction companies to complete work by May 20.

A division bench of the apex court comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the case. During the course of the proceedings, Justice Ahmed directed all the three construction companies to submit Rs10 million guarantee each, saying the guarantee amount would be forfeit if the project was not finished by May 20. He hoped this project would be successful and would not come crashing down.

Justice Ahmed also expressed concern over current project director and held him responsible for the delay in the work. He directed that Justice (retd) Jamshed or Justice Abdul Sattar Asghar be made the head of the technical committee. He remarked the Punjab government should consider if the current technical committee head Justice (retd) Zahid Hussain wanted to continue work.

Justice Ahmed said if the contractoRsdid not work, “fire them or put them in prison”, saying the project director was apparently being blackmailed by the construction companies. He remarked all the three construction companies will give a guarantee of Rs1 billion and it will be confiscated if work was not completed by the scheduled date. To which, Advocate Naeem Bukhari, counsel for the construction companies, said his clients could not give guarantee of Rs1 billion. He said his clients had already given Rs2 billion guarantee, adding his clients’ dues of Rs1.5 billion were pending.

Justice Ahsan said it was a public interest project and huge funds had been used for metro train project. Justice Ahmed asked if there was any mechanism to check the quality of construction of the project. To which, the project director said their consultants were supervising the construction work of the metro train project. The hearing was then adjourned for two weeks.