Second phase of Moti Mahal Chowk underpass project further delayed

Rawalpindi
Owing to certain reasons better known to the related authorities, the completion of second phase of underpass project i.e. on right side of Nullah Leh bridge at Moti Mahal Chowk would take another one month.
According to reliable sources, this time the related bodies including Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) and the contractors would be able to meet its fresh dead line of October 31 to complete this much delayed project.
Prior to this, the city district government as well as RDA had every now and then made tall claims of finishing the work on this bridge on scheduled date of July 31, 2015, however, due to certain reasons the authorities failed to meet the deadline and again set a deadline of September but didn’t succeed even this time.
Giving major reasons of delay in completion of work on this project, the sources said that the design work was changed by NESPAK. Similarly, heavy rains in monsoon season were the main cause of delaying completion of the project.
However, according to RDA director engineering Muhammad Asghar Warraich work on the right part of underpass at Liaquat Bagh is being done at rapid speed and would be completed in a month. With the completion of the work, road of underpass would be opened for all kind of traffic moving from Tipu Road to Mareer Chowk. Similarly, underpass road on the left side at Liaquat Bagh was already completed before the inauguration of Metro Bus Project and all type of traffic was allowed to move from Liaquat Bagh to Tipu Road.
Asghar Warraich said the problem of traffic congestion on Benazir Bhutto Road has been resolved to a larger extent with the enforcement of projects like Flyovers, widening of roads and Metro project. Due to linking roads, traffic remained choked at Liaquat Bagh which would also be over with the completion of task on Nullah Leh bridge.
He further said that the entire Benazir Bhutto Road has been made signal free and the vehicles move smoothly without any choking. He agreed that completion of this last component of Metro Bus project is delayed thrice, however, cleared that it is not done deliberately. One of the major reasons was arrival of monsoon season from July to mid September, causing heavy rains which affected work a lot. Similarly, due to two Eids, the labour goes on leave and return late. Besides this, technical problems occurred including non-functioning of machines and other mechanical equipments. All this resulted in delay of completion of the project on time.