MCI’s first road project turned out to be a failure

Islamabad

The motorists travelling between Rawalpindi and Islamabad have demanded of the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to order inquiry into poor and substandard maintenance work carried out on the I J Principal Road.

Majority of motorists who regularly use I J Principal Road have expressed dissatisfaction over quality of maintenance and repair work on a portion of the main road which takes bulk of all kinds of traffic daily.

Dozens of rough patches and ditches appeared on the repaired portion have exposed poor work within a month time. Only a spell of winter rains was sufficient to turn newly repaired road as bad.

The maintenance work was conducted under supervision of the Municipal Corporation of Islamabad (MCI) and being MCI's first road project it turned out to be a failure.

As the MCI is under control of the Interior Ministry, therefore, the people feel that Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is the right man to order an inquiry into failure of the project.

It may be recalled here that the PC-1 of the project was prepared by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) but the MCI took over the plan with the Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz inaugurating the development activity.

“One cannot imagine that how the MCI works,” Naseem Shah, a motorist said adding the MCI contractor not only left the project incomplete but the ditches have also appeared on the executed part of the road within few weeks time.

At least six motorists interviewed by this correspondent said that they were disappointed with performance of MCI which they observed was visible from plight of the I J Principal Road.

They said that not only that the road condition was in bad shape but the streetlights also remain switched off, the whole night.

An official of MCI said that non-availability of funds has been the main reason for not completing maintenance of the road. He said the affected portion was excavated and a new layer was laid there but the carpeting was yet to be done due to which ditches have appeared there.

The motorists feel the CDA and MCI have been focusing their attention on Karal Interchange on Islamabad Expressway which is already late while all other development maintenance activity had been stopped.

The residents of Sectors I-9, I-10 and I-8 have complained that many streets and roads were still deprived of streetlights despite notice taken by the Prime Minister office.