CM expresses anguish over delay in Metro Bus Project

Rawalpindi
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, while expressing anguish and concern over delay in completion of Metro Bus Project on the deadline of January 31, has directed the concerned authorities to complete it by February 15 for operating buses on Rawalpindi and Islamabad routes.
According to credible sources, Metro Bus Project Implementation Sub-Committee Chairman Hanif Abbasi held a meeting with Shahbaz Sharif at Islamabad Airport on his return from Saudi Arabia.
During the meeting, Hanif Abbasi briefed the chief minister on the ongoing work on Metro Bus Service Project. He informed the chief minister that due to addition of components in the project, including laying of new sewerage and drainage pipelines and construction of an underpass at Liaquat Bagh Chowk, its completion would be delayed by another two weeks. Hanif Abbasi also referred to the two sit-ins of PTI and PAT, which lasted longer, due to which work on the project remained suspended for a long period. Had the two sit-in were not held in Islamabad, he was fully determined and confident to achieve the completion date of the project in December instead of January 31.
The chief minister, while rejecting the excuses, ordered for further expediting work on the project and completing it soon for meeting the new deadline of February 15. Further delay in completion period could not be tolerated, the chief minister said.
However, though the concerned authorities like earlier have vowed to meet the new deadline, but the officials and staff related to the project are still not sure enough that work would be over even by February 15.
According to them, still sufficient work remains on Packages-II of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The Package-II of Peshawar Morr Interchange, which they claimed, is a component of the project, would take time for completion. However, they were sure enough that the overall project inauguration is possible on March 23 this year. Till that time, work on components, including reconstruction and carpeting of entire Benazir Bhutto Road and laying of sewerage and drainage pipelines, would also be over.
However, Metro Bus Project official spokesman Assistant Director Hafiz Muhammad Irfan, while commenting on the completion time, said that now the new deadline would be met and the project would be inaugurated on February 15 which is likely by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Work on all components would be over a couple of days before the inauguration date, he stated.