PM Forms Committee to Probe Bhara Kahu Flyover Incident

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday established an inquiry committee to look into the Bhara Kahu flyover girder collapse. Former interior secretary Shahid Khan is in charge of the committee. The committee has been given the immediate duty of compiling a comprehensive report. According to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the PM has given instructions for finding those responsible for this sorry state of affairs. Prior to this, on Saturday, the transom for the same flyover project collapsed, killing two workers. The National Logistics Cell is carrying out the $6.55 billion megaproject (NLC).

As per details, four girders were launched on Wednesday, and while the fifth, 45-meter-long girder was being installed, they fell. Initially, the 5th girder collapsed, impacting the adjacent four as well, and all five fell to the ground within seconds. Right from the beginning, the aforementioned project has generated controversy. It was launched at the federal government's direction since, in addition to widening the motorway, it is a massive project that was initiated during the administration of the current government. It needed to be finished "in record speed," according to the authorities. Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, had instructed the CDA to finish it in three months rather than four when he laid the foundation stone.

On Aug. 14, more than a month before the project's Sept. 30 foundation-laying ceremony, the PM gave the CDA the go-ahead to begin the bypass project and finish it in three months. Additionally, he had promised to give the CDA chairman a medal if the project was finished swiftly. The project later faced its first controversy when it revealed that, allegedly to make an early start, the CDA had started the project without seeking approval from an EIA. The PM lay the project's foundation stone on September 30. (EIA). The professors of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) then expressed their objection to the project because a portion of it passes across QAU's property. It has been reported at least two 22-wheeler vehicles overloaded with hay hit the transom on Saturday. In the next morning, laborers started to pour concrete into the structure, and when the T-shaped pillar was being given final touches the under-construction transom collapsed.