ISLAMABAD: The National Highway Authority (NHA) on Monday told the Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reforms that metro bus service from Peshawar More Interchange to New Islamabad International Airport will be functional by 2020.
The committee meeting, chaired by Agha Shahzaib Durrani, was informed that the 25.6 kilometres road track for the project has been completed, while work on electrical part of the project was under way.
“The NHA will make the metro bus project functional by February 2020,” said a senior NHA official.
The committee also discussed construction and upgrading of the highway between Durgai Shabozai and Tonsa. Briefing the committee, Balochistan Works Department official said the project was announced in 2009, while its estimated cost as per the PC-I was Rs6 billion. However, the authorities approved a revised PC-I of Rs4.085 billion in 2013, they added.
Because of delay, the officers said the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) shifted the project from the Balochistan Development Authority to the Communications and Works Department, following which work on the task started in 2017. So far, funds amounting to Rs1.8 billion have been released for the project and 42 per cent of the work is completed, they added.
The said delays in the work have increased the cost by 22 per cent.
So far, the federal government has released Rs0.6 billion out of the earmarked Rs1.65 billion while the provincial government released Rs1.24 billion of funds out of Rs1.74 billion. Due to the addition of six new bridges and other components, the cost of the project shoot up by Rs5 billion.
