islamabad - The completion of the Peshawar Mor Interchange continues to face delays and work is continuing at a very slow pace, causing inconvenience to residents of the twin cities.
The five billion rupees interchange project is being constructed at the junction of Kashmir Highway and 9th Avenue. The construction work on the interchange has badly disrupted the flow of traffic, as thousands of vehicles ply on aforementioned roads each day.
Aslam Khan a taxi driver told APP, “To reach Peshawar Mor from 9th Avenue, we have to take a long turn every day form Karachi Company via FDE and PWD.”
In addition to motorists, office goers and students, residents of sector G-9 are also facing immense difficulties because the electricity supply is frequently suspended. “The residents of this sector have become accustomed to hours without electricity because the construction work causes faults in electricity supply,” said Ali Hamza, a resident of G-9/3 sector.
Siddiq Abbasi, a shopkeeper at Peshawar Mor said whenever IESCO office is contacted for the registration of a complaint, he is told that transmission lines are being laid at the construction site.
A senior official of Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) admitted that completion of the interchange at Peshawar Mor has faced delays.
“The interchange is not directly a part of the metro bus project, that is why we did not focus on it in the first phase. Now our full attention is on the interchange,” he said. Interchange Project in-charge Waseem Tariq said that total length of the underground, overhead and ramp roads is 14 kilometres with a width of one-and-a-half kilometre. As many as eight flyovers and many roads will be part of the project. He said that imported steel has been used in girders and their life span will be over 100 years. Rafiq Tanoli, an old citizen passing through the site, said that the government was eager to inaugurate the metro bus service but since then it should have expedited work on the project as it is much delayed.
“The contractor seems to have been left to his own devices,” he said.
A senior CDA official, who is part of a coordination team between CDA and Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), said that initially the metro bus project, including Peshawar Mor Interchange, was supposed to be completed by December 2014. “However, the project faced delays due to many reasons,” he said. Later, it was announced that the Peshawar Mor Interchange would be completed by March 23 but no progress was made, he added.
“Now the project is likely to be completed by February end but looking at the pace of work, it appears that even this deadline would be missed,” he added.