CDA To Accelerate Work On Expansion Of Islamabad Expressway

Islamabad: The city managers in order to mitigate public woes and worries on Islamabad Expressway Expansion Project have recently accelerated the construction and expansion of the road especially the 9km portion from Koral to Rawat being deeply considered by the authorities. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has already decided to complete the said portion in two phases and is trying to complete the 2 KM portion of the first phase from Korang to PWD bridge on urgent grounds so that the main issue of congestion may be resolved immediately. The Frontier Works Organization has been awarded the contract to construct the Portion from Korang Bridge to PWD interchange as it turned out to be the lowest bidder with a bid of Rs 2.3 billion.

It is to be noted here that the CDA has already completed the work on the construction of the PWD Interchange but the main issue remains unsolved as the four-lane expressway suddenly transforms to two-lane at Korang Bridge which creates a serious problem for the motorists that remain stuck in the heavy traffic jam for hours. Earlier last year the CDA Board had an exclusive meeting and decided to urgently hire some of the government agencies for the construction of the portion of the Expressway From Korang Bridge To PWD Interchange immediately through its own resources whereas the funding for the 7 KM road from PWD Interchange to Rawat will be sought in June this year through PSDP. A member of the Board said, “The board has decided to award the contract of the expressway under Rule 42(f) of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules, s to ease out the problems being faced by the public on Koral-Rawat section of the highway”.

Under the policy recently adopted by the CDA only government agencies would be offered to bid for the projects like this to overcome issues like timely completion of the project. Out of two bidders NLC and FWO for Koral to Sawan portion, the FWO was awarded contract being the lowest bidder with 2.3 Rs billion to construct the 1.93 KM four-lane road on both sides and construction of service road along PWD interchange. Out of four lanes the two lanes would be constructed for heavy traffic and two flexible lanes for light traffic would be constructed. With the completion of expansion work on Korang to the PWD portion of the expressway, the Traffic Congestion Issue On Islamabad Expressway would be resolved to a great extent as this area is the main bottleneck and with its completion, the problem of the residents of the nearby housing societies like PWD, Korang Town, Pakistan Town, Media Town, and Bahria Town would be resolved.