BRT likely to suffer as project coordinator sent home on forced leave

PESHAWAR: The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project is likely to receive a blow as the project coordinator in the Transport Department has been sent on forced leave.

The sources in the Civil Secretariat confided to this scribe that the Secretary Transport directed the BRT project coordinator Syed Muhammad Sajjad Khan to proceed on leave with immediate effect.

The sources further said that Sajjad Khan submitted his leave application and left his seat immediately on Friday to pave way for his replacement.

Sajjad Khan had been associated with the BRT project since 2013 when its initial planning was started by the Planning and Development (P&D) Department.

However, differences on frequent changes in the design and other fixtures such as conversion of Istanbul-like Cabal Fence into Jersey Fence had put him into a difficult working relationship with the officials of the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) associated with the ambitious project of the provincial government.

Sajjad Khan, by virtue his official position, was also secretary of the project monitoring committee headed by the additional chief secretary (ACS), planning and development department where he is said to have recorded a number of startling facts about the working of the contractors and other quarters concerned in the project.

Despite its own leadership’s criticism against the Metro Bus services in other provinces, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 19, 2017 launched work on the project with a six-month completion deadline.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, at the groundbreaking of the project, announced that it would cost over Rs49 billion which would include infrastructure expenses of Rs29 billion, Rs7.87 billion for purchasing 300 buses and Rs4 billion would be spent on the parking plazas at the Chamkani, Dabgari and Hayatabad stations for the commuters to park their cars and use BRT buses.

However, the project remained at the centre of a number of controversies, incomplete design engineering and tight completion schedule being some of them.

It has also been reported that the project would now cost an additional Rs2.5 billion due to a dozen changes in its design.

The project received first shock just eight days after its inauguration when the then PDA DG Saleem Hasan Wattoo was made officer on special duty (OSD) October 27, last year.

A few days later Project Durector of the BRT at the PDA Aminuddin was laid off on the orders of the Peshawar High Court (PHC).

Sajjad Khan is the third officer who has been laid off. It could definitely affect the quality of work on the project as he was a civil engineer by profession having experience of working on similar projects in Britain.