Senate body concerned over delay in capital metro bus extension project

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives took serious notice over delay in the extension project of metro bus service from New airport Islamabad to Peshawar Morr metro station and said that the delay was causing unnecessary increase in cost of the project.

The meeting of the committee which met here chaired by Senator Agha Shahzaib Durrani decided to take briefing from planning division, ministry of communication and Capital Development Authority on the matter in its next meeting.

The committee chairman said that it was certain that any one of the above mentioned departments was responsible in unnecessary delay in completion of the project.

He said after the briefing, the committee would form a sub-committee to probe in to the matter so that the responsible individuals or departments should be identified.

The committee members also expressed concern over the delay in the project saying that ownership of the project had not been decided yet that might cause operational issues after completion.

The CDA authorities informed the committee that National Highway Authority was assigned the responsibility of the project and the total cost of the 25.6 long metro bus project was estimated at Rs. 16.4 billion.

The meeting was informed that the infrastructure of the project would be completed by next month however more time was needed to make it fully functional as other services works of the project was still pending.

It was further informed that draft legislation for setting up Capital Mass Transit Authority and the private sector would have opportunities of investment in this sector.

The meeting was also attended by Senators Hidayat Ullah, Fida Muhamamd, Rana Maqbool Ahmed, Asad Ashraf and Engineer Rukhsana Bukhari besides Secretary Planning and other high officials of the concerned departments.