RDA failed to launch any development project in last fiscal year.

RAWALPINDI -- The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) failed to launch any project in the fiscal year 2021-22 and is yet to start any development work in the current year.

A senior RDA official told Dawn that last year there were three main projects entrusted to the civic body - Rawalpindi Ring Road, Rawal Expressway and Flood Channel and Kutchery Chowk Remodeling.

However, he said, work on these projects remained limited to the preparation of PC-I. Neither the previous PTI government nor the incumbent PML-N-led provincial government started work on roads and other infrastructures.

'In the last tenure of PML-N in Punjab, the RDA had completed work on improvement of Fawara Chowk parking plaza, Liaquat Bagh flyover and Double Road interchange. But, in the last four years, the civic agency did nothing,' he said.

Work on Ring Road, Rawal Expressway and Kutchery Chowk remodelling remains confined to PC-I preparations, says official

This fiscal year, Rawalpindi Ring Road project has been included by the federal government in the list of five projects for foreign investments.

'The fate of the remaining two projects is still hangs in the balance,' he said.

He said in May the RDA returned Rs7 billion to the Punjab government that had been released in the last fiscal year.

The official said this year the government has allocated Rs500 million for the Kutchery Chowk project and Rs20 million for the Rawal Expressway and Flood Channel.

In the annual development programme of Punjab, there is no other project for Rawalpindi and the civic body...