Residents urge govt to give exact date for project launch

Islamabad
The civil society and traders of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi urged the government to give exact and clear-cut date for the launch of the multi-billion Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project, as the unnecessary and undue delay has already considerably escalated the cost of the project.
The citizens of twin cities on Tuesday participated in a walk titled ‘Quick Completion of Metro Bus Project’ organised by EsaR Trust at Jinnah Avenue, which was attended by people from different walks of life.
Addressing participants of the walk, EsaR Trust President Syed Muhammad Belal called upon the government that no excuse pertaining to the further delay of the project would be tolerated by the people of twin cities specially business community, as three deadlines have already been missed, despite shifting all resources of the already cash-starved economy of the country towards the project. Further arguing at what the government called the multi-billion project a revolutionary programme to provide the public state-of-the-art, safe and reasonably-priced transportation facilities, he said that prolonged delay in Metro Bus project is adversely affecting the businesses of traders, besides multiplying the worries and difficulties of the dwellers of the twin cities.
Syed Belal went on saying that the government instead of misleading the masse by giving lame excuses for delay in the project should give last and final date for its completion to ease the woes of the masses, as traders of the twin cities have already on roads and set up a hunger strike camp in protest against undue delay of the project. He demanded of the government that businesses of various markets situated along side of Metro Bus routes of the twin cities have badly affected during last one a half year trade activities in the city were minimized due to inconvenience caused by Metro Bus the project, so the government should announce compensation for their financial losses as well as a five-year tax waiver for the traders. He said that more delay in the project will not be accepted at any cost, as traders who have already suffered a lot were no more in position to bear further financial losses. “The government should repair the roads damaged during the construction of the metro bus track in the capital city on war-footing and remove the heaps of construction materials lying on different roads,” he added. The Capital Development Authority (CDA), he asked should clear the mess and nurse the damaged green environment back to health.
Blue Area Traders leader Imran Shabir, Ashiq Hussain, Lawyer leader Mansoor Abbasi advocate and Shafiq Abbasi along others also addressed on the occasion.