Jago Times "English Edition" Best Online Newspaper
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has called bids for the construction of the over 10 km portion of Margalla Road, which remained stalled for years.
A few days ago, the CDA invited bids from the construction firms for Khayaban-i-Margalla from G.T. Road to D-12 balance work under Package I.
In 2012, the civic agency had awarded contract worth Rs 588 million for the construction of a 8.5 km portion of the road but the project could not be completed as after completing earthwork the contractor left the site and went to litigation against the CDA.
The contractor claimed that the CDA did not provide him a hurdle-free land for the construction of the road.
But the CDA said the contractor should have constructed the road in the area which was free from encroachment.
CDA and contractor reached out-of-court settlement paving way for tendering process afresh
There was also an issue of alignment of the road as a century-old graveyard near Shah Allahditta fell on its alignment.
Recently, the CDA and the contractor made an out-of-court settlement, paving the way for the tendering process afresh.
CDA officials said that now instead of the 8.5 km a 10.5 km road would be constructed which will end at the ending point of D-12. The road would be diverted towards the north at a distance of about 1,000 feet from the graveyard.
“We have called tenders, now there is no hurdle in this project,” said an engineer of the CDA.
He said that the civic agency is going to start construction of the road as CDA’s four sectors – C-13, C-14, C-15 and C-16 – fall on this portion of the road. The estimated cost of the project is Rs970 million.
The CDA officials said the civic agency after constructing the road from G.T. Road to D-12 will link it with existing Khayaban-i-Iqbal, which is wrongly called Margalla Road.
Khayaban-i-Margalla is the main road of the capital city which is part of capital’s master plan prepared by Greek firm Doxiadis Associates 1960.
The proposed road, as per the original alignment, crosses along the Margalla Hills. As per the master plan, it starts from G.T. Road and after passing through various areas touches Constitution Avenue before moving towards Bari Imam side to culminate on Murree Road at Bhara Kahu.
The officials said that in the next phase, the second end of the road will be constructed from the junction of Khayaban-i-Iqbal and Constitution Avenue and it will cross from Bari Imam, Quaid-i-Azam University Area to reach Bhara Kahu.
The CDA is also mulling not to end the proposed road at Bhara Kahu to avoid traffic congestion on the already congested Murree Road and planning to make it a bypass road before linking it with Murree Expressway.