ISLAMABAD   -   In early June, Islamabad’s Chief Commissioner and Chairman CDA Muhammad Ali Randhawa confidently announced on X (formerly twitter) that several construction projects would be finished by 14th of August. However, like many official promises before, this one was not kept and the deadline came and went. Residents have also noted that other projects are dragging on, worsening the daily commute for many.   

Mr. Randhawa in his tweet regarding expansion and widening of the Islamabad Expressway from Koral to T-Chowk on G.T road had claimed that the entire project would be completed before 14th August. He claimed that the work on road, Soan Bridge and Bhandar Bridge is underway simultaneously and promised that the project would be completed before 14th August. However, the situation on ground is entirely different as there are a lot of work pending on the project and sources informed that it will took about three more months of the city managers to complete the said project.

When contacted, the Director Public Relations CDA Shahid Kiani without commenting on the chairman’s public statement on social media has stated that the official deadline of the project is 30th September but we were trying to complete it ahead of its completion date. He however claimed that 98 percent road work had been completed on said project and assured that it would be fully ready and operational before its official deadline of 30th September. It is pertinent to mention here that 30th September is not the original deadline but it was already extended. The CDA had awarded the contract worth Rs10.9 billion to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) for the rehabilitation and expansion of the seven-kilometre portion of the expressway from PWD Interchange to GT Road in Rawat in September 2022, and the project was to be completed by March 20, 2024. The signal free corridor all the way from Faisal Mosque to T-Chowk was a brain child of former premier Nawaz Sharif, who provided funds for three overhead bridges at I-8, Sohan and Koral but at the middle of the execution of these projects, he was ousted and his party’s government could hardly complete these interchange till 2018.

Later, the second portion of the project stalled almost the entire period of the government of Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf due to one reason or another but when Shehbaz Sharif came back in power, CDA handed over this project to the Frontier Works Organization. Meanwhile, the residents of Islamabad are also complaining about the poor state of affairs on the rest of the projects as well. The widening of Park Road has become a permanent hazard for commuters as the contractor could not complete the project besides passing a year. The Park Road project was supposed to be completed by December last year, but its deadline was extended till May, which also missed and the road is still incomplete. Until about two decades ago, the road was used only by residents of some villages/towns such as Lakhwal, Banigala, Rawal Town, Shahzad Town, Tramri and Chatta Bakhtawar.

But due to the development of housing societies, marquees and educational institutions, it has turned into one of the busiest roads in the city.

Before the start of the work, the 7.4 km-long road had two lanes. The CDA is now adding an extra lane on either side besides overhauling the existing lanes to ease the traffic flow.