Ataturk Avenue starts falling apart even before formal opening

Islamabad : The newly constructed dual lane of Ataturk Avenue, from A.K. Fazal-ul-Haq Road to Khayaban-e-Suhrawardy, has developed cracks, pits and potholes even before it is fully completed with lane marking, re-installation of traffic signals and probably Curbstone!

This section of the Ataturk Avenue hit snags right from the beginning when the adverse environmental impact because of cutting of a large number of trees to clear the way for making it a dual-carriageway were raised and the work was stopped for a long time as the matter was taken up in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Eventually the road was completed and recently was thrown open for up and down traffic flow on this section connecting A.K. Fazal-ul-Haq Road to Khayaban-e-Suhrawardy. And that very soon exposed the bad quality of construction as the blacktop has started chipping away, bumps and depressions have being felt while driving.

It would not surprise anybody if the commuters driving up and down on this road may soon find the faults and flaws in the rain/storm water draining system as well during the forthcoming rains.

When contacted the spokesperson for the Capital Development Authority (CDA) said that the finishing of half of this road, from A.K. Fazal-ul-Haq road up to Begum Sarfraz Iqbal road along Sector G-6/3 was still not finalized because the WAPDA people were still busy shifting some their cables on this segment of the project.

The Project Director, however, said that despite the hindrance of WAPDA, the work on this segment of the project was also completed and finalised by the contractor.

“But the contractor did a bad job on this part because the temperature of bitumen was not maintained while laying finishing layer. The trucks bringing the asphalting material for the site were required to take a longer route because of the sit-in staged by the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F).

“And because the weather in those days had all of a sudden turned cold, the asphalting material used on this part was not hot enough when it was spread out. We had already noted this discrepancy and have told the contractor to re-do the carpeting of this segment of the project once again and also complete the finishing touches,” the Project Director told ‘The News’.

He said that this would not cost the CDA any extra money because the contractor is under obligation to maintain the road for at least one year and it is not even a month that the wear and tear on this segment have started appearing.