Construction of PWD Underpass yet to kick off

Islamabad : The ground-breaking of PWD Underpass, Expansion of Korang Bridge interchange projects at Islamabad Expressway has proved just an eyewash, as not a single brick has been laid even after the passage of over two and half months to the ceremony in earlier July, 2020.

It is a classic example of lackadaisical approach, negligence, apathy and mismanagement of Capital Development Authority (CDA).

The residents of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) learnt about the meaning of red tape in real sense as the CDA claimed constructing the Rs420 million PWD underpass and Rs628.5 million Korang Bridge with its own resources for the last couple of years but their procedural requirements were not yet over. Nobody knew the utility of Rs500 million allocated for the projects in the Public Sector Development Project (PSDP) of 2019-20. The residents of Pakistan Town, Korang Town, River Garden, Bahria Town, Media Town, Doctors Town, Police Foundation, Navel Anchorage, Jinnah Garden, Soan Gardens and localities up to Rawat have stressed the federal government to start construction of the projects to end their traffic woes.

The expressway is one of the busiest roads in Rawalpindi and Islamabad because it caters to both local and heavy traffic, particularly to and from Lahore and other part of Punjab, KP and Kashmir. Expressway is now signal free corridor from Zero point to Gulberg Green, which includes 4 interchanges, I-8, Soan, Khanna and Koral.

The remaining 13 km stretch of the Expressway most horrible condition and requires immediate foremost rehabilitation.

The project to widen the Islamabad Expressway from Zero Point to Rawat was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in July 2015. The CDA was supposed to complete the Signal Free Five-Lane Islamabad Expressway from Korang nullah bridge to T-Chowk Rawat by December 2018. But the project was abandoned from Korang to T Chowk due to variety of reasons.

CDA had announced a couple of years ago to repair the road from Korang bridge to Rawat, besides constructing PWD underpass and expanding Korang bridge to ease the traffic flow.

The Korang bridge expansion and underpass projects were aimed at de-congesting traffic flow at Islamabad Highway and enabling the residents of suburban areas of the federal capital to commute without any traffic hassle and save the travel time.

When contacted, Spo­kesman of CDA Mazhar Hussain told APP that the construction of three projects would be started within the next 10 to 15 days as the funding issues of PWD Underpass and Korang bridge expansion projects have been resolved. While the environmental Impact report of Rawal Dam Chowk Interchange was in process.