PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has extended the deadline for BRT completion for another year and hired the services of another contractor.
The government has asked the Asian Development Bank and the French Bank for one year more time to complete the project. According to Peshawar Development Authority documents, the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project has still to complete the construction of a number of important structures while several completed structure have been reported to be substandard. The contractor has been accused of failing to complete the project on time.
Under the agreement, the provincial government reserves the right to hire another contractor for the project completion and rectify the substandard work therefore the contract has been awarded to another company. All the costs of awarding the contract to the new contractor will be borne by the security deposited of the existing failed contractor.
However, due to non-completion of the project the loan could not be fully paid by the ADP and the French Bank. The ADB has so far released $319.26 million out of $33 335 million approved for BRT. Similarly, out of the $146.09 million approved by the French bank, $79.3 million has been released to the KP government. After extending the project till December 31, 2022, this amount can now be released to the provincial government.
Under the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit Project, a shopping mall called Mall of Hayatabad and parking depot at Debgari are waiting for construction. However, the work on both the projects was stopped because of substandard construction. According to sources, the construction work on the project will be completed during 2022 while the BRT buses would remain in operation.