Metro bus service operation to IIA uncertain, Senate body told.

Byline: Kashif Abbasi

ISLAMABAD -- Construction and civil work on the metro bus track from Peshawar Mor to the Islamabad International Airport (IIA) will now be completed in February next year, but the operation of the bus service remains uncertain.

The three main authorities involved in the project - the National Highway Authority (NHA), Punjab Masstransit Authority (PMA) and Capital Development Authority (CDA) - have already refused to run the service between Peshawar Mor and the airport.

The NHA is executing the Rs16 billion project to construct a 25.6 kilometre track.

NHA Member Engineering Arbab Ali told a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reform on Monday that both components of the project - construction as well as electric and mechanical - would be completed by February 2020.

The project began in January 2017 and was supposed to be completed first in August 2018 and then in December 2018.

Discussing the operation of the service, Mr Ali told the committee that the NHA is only supposed to carry out development work and according to the PC-I, the PMA is supposed to operate the service.

He said it was later proposed that the PMA and CDA would run the service, but a crucial meeting of stakeholders and the principal secretary to the prime minister that was scheduled to be held in July was not held. He said the question of who will run the bus service will be decided when the meeting is held.

The PMA, which runs the metro bus service between Rawalpindi and Islamabad, has deemed the service from Peshawar Mor to IIA to be financially unfeasible, while the CDA being a development agency has already refused to take responsibility for the operation of the service in the capital.

Mr Ali told the committee that the project has three packages. Of these, package three has been completed, and 88pc of package two and 96pc of package one are complete.

As far as electric and mechanical work is concerned, the installation of escalators and so on has not yet been carried out, he said.

The committee directed the NHA to complete the project in...

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