PESHAWAR - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has condemned the allegations levelled by Salman Shehbaz, son of Shehbaz Sharif, regarding the transparency of Rapid Bus Transit project.
In his tweet Salman Shehbaz tried to divert attention from the alleged corruption in Orange Train Lahore, Islamabad Metro, Multan Metro and Lahore Metro and so many other projects in Punjab, he added.
He drew a comparison between the Rapid Bus Transit Peshawar and other projects of similar nature, adding that Peshawar Rapid Bus Transit have prominent features that other metro projects didn't have.
He reminded that Rapid Bus Transit Peshawar was a transparent project wherein everything was open, transparent and nothing had ever been kept secret in the entire process from the commencement to the implementation stage of the project.
The ruling elite of Punjab kept on giving misleading statements in their efforts to hoodwink the people and cast aspersions on clean and transparent governance in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he added.
Pervez Khattak has said that Rapid Bus Transit Peshawar was one of the most transparent projects. He added, “Unlike Punjab, we did not sacrifice development of social sector for rapid bus project. Giving details of rapid bus project, he went on saying that it was financed by Asian Development Bank. The ADB had been involved in its design, procurement process, payment to the contractors and at each and every step in its overall execution.
He made it clear that after the technical clearance of ADB and stringent scrutiny of the government committee, the lowest bid was accepted adding that there was not even an iota of doubt about the transparency of the procurement process. He said Peshawar High Court, in its judgment dated 7th December 2017 had also declared the whole process completely legal. The contractor of BRT Maqbool Coloson was not a blacklisted by any government agency. He said unlike Punjab the BRT was designed on the self-sustainable basis. It will not involve any subsidy from the government, added.
He said the contract of the project was made through international bidding. The contractors were technically cleared by the ADB through very stringent and transparent process. The contractor was a joint venture between Maqbool Calson and Chinese companies like China railway 1st Group and SGEC.
He said the ADB consultants were supervising the execution in detail. It was important that payment to the contractors were not made through any provincial government agency. The bills were prepared by the PDA, scrutinized by the ADB and payments were made directly to the contractors by the ADB. Hence leaving a little cushion for exploitation of the contractor by the government agencies, he added.
Pervez Khattak also said that the contractor of the BRT, Maqbool Colson was not a black-listed, however, he had a dispute with the Lahore Development Authority in Orange Line Project.
Arbitration was going on between the contractor and Punjab Government. This aspect was also thoroughly examined by ADB during the technical evaluation of the bid documents. The contractor had also worked in Islamabad Metro and Multan Metro.
The chief minister termed BRT as third generation project in real sense and said that there were several unique features of the Peshawar BRT making it the best Mass Transit System in Pakistan. The features included Staging facility with Park & Ride, and Commercial Area, Park & Ride Facility at Depots, 6 Stories Parking Plaza at LRH, 7 Feeder BRT Routes, 150 Bus Shelters for Feeder Routes, Overtaking / Passing Lanes at Station, Ambulance & Emergency Vehicle Access to BRT Corridor, Exclusive Cycle Lane along BRT Corridor, Pedestrian Walkways along BRT Corridor, Bike Sharing Scheme (BSS) at University of Peshawar, 20 Rest Rooms along BRT Corridor, Building line to Building line improvement, Defined Pedestrian Crossing facilities, 61 Kanal of Commercial facilities, Pedestrian Bridge & Underpasses with Commercial Shops and Large Bus Depots to Accommodate 300 Busses. These features were not catered for in Lahore, Islamabad or Multan Metro.
The chief minister said that it was the most economical mass transit project. He also drew a comparison between BRT and other projects of its nature and said that Infrastructure cost of 26 Km long BRT Peshawar was Rs32.86 billion costing per Km only Rs1.26 billion, while the infrastructure cost of 18.2 Km long Multan Metro was Rs.28.50 billion costing per Km Rs1.566 billion that was 24 percent higher than the BRT Peshawar. Similarly the infrastructure cost of 23.2 Km long Islamabad Metro was Rs50 billion costing per Km Rs2.155 billion that was 71 percent higher than the BRT. The infrastructure cost of 27 Km long Lahore metro was Rs60 billion costing per Km Rs2.222 billion that was also 76 percent higher than BRT project.
The loan will be returned to ADB in 30 years time. “We did not sacrifice development of social sector for BRT,” he added.
He said unlike Punjab, the project was designed on the self-sustainable basis. It will not involve any subsidy from the government. Hence there was no burden on Social Sectors.
He said the government of KP was committed to complete the project by April 2018 adding that the work was going on in full swing.
He hoped that the project will change the dynamics of Peshawar City. He said the provincial government was also working on a Circular Rail Project under CPEC which will connect Peshawar, Nowshera, Mardan, Charsadda and Swabi through a suburban rail system.
Taking both the projects i.e BRT and Circular Rail together, one can foresee the bright future of the province, he added.
Talking about the different packages of the project, he said that the Package I of the project was awarded to SGEC, Maqbool and Calson and the packages II and III had been awarded to China Railway 1st Group Maqbool Calson Joint Venture wherein the Chinese companies were the lead partners.