Stocktaking time as Metro Bus Project close to completion

Islamabad
Now that the Punjab government is abuzz with the preparations for the inauguration of Rs44.31 billion ambitious 23.7 kilometres long Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus track for plying dream buses (tentatively from May 27), it would be appropriate to know whether the contractors assigned with the job 15 months back have fulfilled the deadline and if not whether they would be charged for the delay causing embarrassment for the planners or rewarded for ‘good performance’.
There is no official to comment not at least Hanif Abbasi, head of the PML-N government’s Implementation Committee, despite several calls and text messages. The blame game about delay in construction work started in August last year with start of PTI and PAT ‘dharn’a but no proof was made available when the work would have stopped for a single day due to dharna. The inside sources claim that in fact the contractors lacked sufficient machinery due to which they could not go apace to complete work in time. So far as the reason of bad weather interrupting work, it happened during the months of February and March this year which would not have happened had the work completed at appointed time. This objective analysis may be bitter, but it can help improve things while executing other projects of same nature.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, while inaugurating physical work on Rs44.3 billion Rawalpindi, Islamabad Metro Bus project on March 23, 2014, said it will be completed in 10 months meaning it will be commissioned latest by January 23, 2015, but almost simultaneously the PML-N local leader former MNA Hanif Abbasi boasted to get it completed even two months ahead of the deadline. Interestingly, the planners claim that as many as 153,000 commuters would commute while the total number of total travellers who commute between twin cities comes to 0.5 million. The people question whether the remaining 3.5 million people will remain glued to the underprivileged class which suffers all the day in shabby and untidy public transport.
While talking to this correspondent in mid-February, Abbasi had claimed, “He was not going to allow (contractors) drag work beyond March, a promise he had earlier made to do so by January 31, and the project will be incomplete against his claim when it will be opened for the buses. Leave alone the main bus track which is almost ready, the rubble that has to be removed from various stations, on ground on service road and the physical work will continue to haunt the government for few more months. This excludes the time which repair of roads infrastructure which has been destroyed due to overload of the heavy traffic that was diverted to alternate routes from the main artery during construction work.
The delay, the lengthy delay which the political supporters of the government blame on Imran Khan’s prolonged dharna and incessant rains has not only caused extreme tension on commuters, motorists and daily wage workers, but it has almost destroyed the businesses that were bursting with droves of shoppers all along Benazir Road.
The government propaganda machine both paid adverts and party affiliates have over time created a euphoria about the state of the art project—true, but they have no reply to few questions inter alia;
How and whether the damage/losses occurred to the businesses on the roadside during construction work would be compensated and those rendered jobless would be rehabilitated. Whether the electric poles giving an ugly look after construction of elevated metro track would ever be replaced with underground wiring? What the administration has taken measures for making the traffic on BB Road smooth by allowing ‘zebra crossings, underpasses or overhead bridges to ease the flow of pedestrians?
It’s time for stock taking; it’s time for soul searching and it’s time for accountability as without accountability of those responsible for lapses, delays, the people will continue to suffer despite Metro buses plying over their heads (for Pindiites). At present those made supervisors over the contractors are trying to save their skin under the unjustified and baseless causes of delay and lacking in works.