PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government headed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has missed its sixth deadline despite announcements by the KP information minister that the project would be completed in time.
Addressing a press conference, Info Minister Shaukat Yousafzai said the project would be completed in 2020 and people would start getting its benefits from next year.
He claimed 87 per cent work on the mega project has been completed and added that 30 stations had been finalised, while work on the remaining 10 stations was underway.
Earlier, the minister had said the project would be finished by December this year, but reports claimed that the flagship project of the PTI government was unlikely to be completed in December, citing completion of only 16 stations out of over 40.
According to reports, three bus depots made for Peshawar BRT were also under construction. “Even 10 per cent work has not been done on the Haytabad bus depot. No work has been done on the route from Hayatabad to Karkhano Market,” they claimed.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government had earlier decided to approach the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to conduct a forensic audit of the BRT project which has fallen massively short on its development targets, achieving mere six per cent progress in the past six months.
The ADB will decide who is responsible for the repeated delays in completing the project and carrying out low standard work. Once the bank gets hold of the forensic audit, the government will take legal action against the responsible elements.
According to a local media channel, the ADB would determine who among the contractor, consultant, engineer or PDA is dishonest and unprofessional.
According to the additional chief secretary, only one per cent work had been conducted in the past six months on the project whereas the secretary was also quoted as saying that the project would not be completed within the expected time.
