Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Construction work on the 25.6 kilometre Peshawar Morr-New Islamabad Airport Metro Bus Service is going smoothly and it is expected that the project will be completed by November this year, National Highway Authority (NHA) spokesman Kashif Zaman said on Monday.

To ensure timely completion, he said, the Rs 15 billion project has been divided into four packages. Package-I is from Peshawar Morr to NUST, Package-II from NUST to GT Road, Package-III from GT Road to Motorway Interchange and Package-IV from Motorway Interchange to New Islamabad Airport.

He said that on Package-I over 55 percent civil works had been completed, while its electro mechanical works were at the procurement stage. “As far as Package-II is concerned, its 30 percent civil works have been completed and electro mechanical works are at the procurement stage,” he said, adding that on Package-III, 19 percent civil works had been completed, while electro mechanical works were at the procurement stage. On Package-IV, 72 percent progress has been achieved on civil works and electro mechanical works are at the procurement stage, he said. The length of Package-I is 8km, length of Package-II is 3.8km, length of Package-III is 8.3km and Package-IV has 5.5km length.

Giving breakup of the package-wise expenditure of the project, he said the cost of the four packages would be Rs 6.58 billion, 5.5 billion, Rs 1.38 billion and Rs 1.63 billion, respectively. The NHA spokesman said that work on Package-IV had started in June last year, Package-III in March this year and work on Packages-I and -II started in April 2017.

“The project will have nine bus stations, including NHA Station, G-10 Station, Nust Station, G-1 Station, GT Road Station, Badana Kalan Station, M-1-M2 Junction Station and Airport Station. The project will have 12 bridges, 26 culverts and 11 underpasses.”

Published in Daily Times, August 22^nd 2017.