Deadline extended for the Bus Rapid Transit project in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: KPK government extends the deadline of the Bus Rapid Transit yet again, claiming to make it operational till the end of the current year.

The delay comes as work is still pending, even though there has been significant progress on the BRT project, “Therefore, I have decided not to open an incomplete project,” said Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood in a statement.

However, the Hayatabad bus depot is likely to be completed by March 2020.

Issues related to the project as the Asian Development Bank is funding some aspects of the projects, like bus stations’ finishing, construction of staff toilets in bus stations, Kassel kerb, alignment channels, directional arrows, widening of sharp turns, have been addressed.

A recent mission of ADB to the project revealed that about 90% of issues related to the project had been resolved, and the Peshawar Development Authority was allowed to proceed further in all aspects.

The payment to the contractors has also been made.

The provincial government Peshawar Development Authority (project’s executing agency), had given the deadline to complete the project within six months on April 20, 2018, launched in Oct 2017. However, the deadline was extended. As the dates further extended from May 20 to June 30 to Dec 31 in 2018 to March 23, 2019.

The cost of the project has also jumped from Rs49 billion earlier to Rs68 billion.

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