The treacherous, winding Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project has dodged many deadlines and cost estimates. The recent one is, as reported by the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), the addition of another Rs3 billion cost to the BRT project, bringing the total to a mammoth Rs71 billion. The PDA took up the issue of cost hike and consequent revision of the PC-I of the mass transit project at a meeting where participants leaned in utter disbelief that the project’s cost had been up by Rs3 billion mainly due to the devaluation of the local currency and subsequent inflation. If the PC-1 is revised, which is a complex issue at the moment, it will be the second such exercise. Earlier last year, the PC-1 was revised to put the project’s cost at Rs68 billion from the initial Rs49 billion after falws were detected in the design. The provincial government, however, insists that the revision of PC-1 involves a hectic exercise and many forums such as the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council, so the approved PC-I and the time for the project’s completion will be followed.
The Peshawar BRT has gradually become the epitome of the public sector’s incompetence. The project has constantly been behind deadlines mainly because of flouting of clauses of the contract agreement by the contractor. Rules allow the government to penalise the contractor with imposing interim recoupable liquidated damages – maximum five per cent of the project cost and slapping the irreversible permanent liquidated damages and terminating the contract. It is high time the government shows its tough face to violators and saves the day. Also, the project had flaws in the drainage near Tehkal area on University Road. This speaks volumes of the efficiency of the project planners.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government of 2013-18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa initiated the BRT project only to beat the criticism haunting it in the wake of the launch of such projects in Punjab. Peshawar, a smaller city than Lahore, did not need such a project. It only needed an efficient public transport system. The government, however, went for the showoff project in haste, and the consequences can be seen.
The project’s cost escalation should be discussed by the ruling party’s top circles so bureaucratic hiccups can be removed at the earliest. *