PESHAWAR: Even as the MMA is revived, the provincial government has started dismantling one of its last remaining symbols even as it appears unlikely that the government will be able to complete the project on time.
Contractors, working on the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project have started tearing down the Malik Saad Shaheed flyover.
Workers have started demolishing the asphalt top and concrete layers of the flyover along with its safety walls near the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) to make way for the BRT corridor — its Reach-1 with Reach-2 near the Bala Hisar Fort.
This means that the contractor would have a very narrow window to complete construction on the new flyover or even alter the existing flyover by April 20, the deadline set by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.
“We have been told to remove the surface pavement carefully so that the bridge’s girders are not damaged and can be used again,” the sub-contractor said.
An engineer of the private consultant working on the BRT said that the abutment and transoms of first three columns from the LRH side will be removed, after which the existing columns will be further heightened to bring it to the level of the elevated BRT corridor coming from Soekarno Chowk.While BRT buses would use the existing Malik Saad Shaheed flyover, another flyover and a corridor would be built for mixed traffic.
The engineer added that initially, the second flyover construction was not included in the design and they were planning to build a tunnel or an underpass for mixed traffic coming from the Soekarno Chowk towards GT Road.
Curiously, the designers and planners, it seems, had forgotten about Shah Katha—a drain built in the 19th century— which passes under the road where the planners had decided to build an underpass.
Since the Shahi Katha cannot be moved, the designers and planners altered the design of the corridor at the execution stage and replaced the mixed traffic tunnel with a new flyover.“The mixed traffic tunnel construction [plan] was later suspended and removed from the design as Shahi Katha was discovered at the spot selected for the tunnel,” the engineer said.
Missing deadline
The amount of civil work still pending suggests that contractors are likely to miss the deadline set by the chief minister.
The contractor has started digging for the construction of two flyovers which are to be built along the Arbab Sikandar Khan Khalil flyover to provide u-turns to the people of Gulbahar and Sikandarpura areas.Later, the design was changed and it was decided to build two small flyovers along the existing Sikandar Khan Khalil Flyover so that the u-turns are not affected.At the moment, contractors are completing repairs and extension of the mixed-traffic roads along the BRT corridor on GT Road in the Reach-1.
In Reach-2, which is completely elevated, the pillars and transoms are under construction at Khyber Bazar, Shoba and Saddar Road. Between Saddar Bazar and Aman Chowk, the pillars and transoms are almost complete.In Reach-3, work on Aman Chowk has yet to be completed where an underground station and tunnel are supposed to be built. Work on the Tehkal flyover has only started recently. Similarly, three underpasses on the University Road and Arbab Road have yet to be completed.
When contacted, Peshawar Development Authority Director General Israrul Haq refused to answer questions posed by The Express Tribuneand resorted to the use of colourful language.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 22[SUP]nd[/SUP], 2018.
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