ISLAMABAD: Despite the cold and chilly winds, the field staff of a Lahore-based contractor is busy conducting `pile load tests` within the limits of a public park to determine the load-bearing capacity of the soil.

It looks like a normal construction activity as the contractor has started initial work at the bridge to be built at the intersection of Stadium Road and Murree Road for the Metro Bus Service project.

The Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro bus project will be a public transport service starting from Flashman`s Hotel up to Islamabad Secretariat. The 8.6km route in Rawalpindi would be elevated while the remaining 14.6km route in Islamabad would be onground.

Strangely however, the contractor has started work even before the tenders have opened.

`Tenders will open after February 28 but we have been doing work with the metro bus service and have executed such projects in Lahore. Who will bid lower than us and meet this standard,` said a senior member on duty at the site.

The meeting of Punjab Cabinet, held in Lahore on February 1, gave formal approval for the 23.2km long Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro bus project, and the foundation stone will be laid on February 28.

While the Punjab chief minister, who presided over the meeting, maintained that the project would be completed transparently and within the timeframe, the basic requirements and legal formalities are being ignored. The initial work which has already started is yet to be approved.

According to General Manager of Punjab Metrobus Authority (PMA) Uzair Shah, the designs of the project are with the Planning and Development Department-Punjab andare expected to be approved within a week.

Apart from the designs, the cost too is not final but Commissioner Rawalpindi Zahid Saeed, who is also the project director, said on January 27 that the project cost had been estimated at Rs38 billion. On the other hand, Uzair Shah said that the cost was still not final and it could be different when the final estimates are derived.

Similarly, Managing Director PMA Sibtain Fazal Aleem said the pre-qualification process would be finalised in one to two weeks.

`But we will be ready to launch the project in the target time,` he maintained.

His confidence is perhaps due to the procedure adopted by the Punjab government in ignoring the formalities while awarding contracts.

After PMA invited bids for consultants of the project, three firms were pre-qualified in October 2013. But after the evaluation, technical bids of all these firms were rejected in the first week of December 2013 after evaluation and by the end of December 2013, Nespak (one of the three firms) was appointed as the consultant.Senior PML-N worker Khawaja Ahmed Hasaan told Dawn that the chief minister had relaxed the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules to save time.

`But this relaxation is not illegal as there is a provision in law which says that contracts can be awarded to the government agency on single bids,` Mr Hasaan added.

Similarly, as it has been in various projects executed by the Punjab government the main contract for the metro bus service would be awarded to government agencies.

CDA sidelined The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been sidelined in the project while there are other legal issues too.

For example, Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), which has been made the executing agency of the project, cannot by law execute works in the federal capital.

RDA`s authorisation to work in Islamabad has been through a single page letter signed by the prime minister, but even he cannot overrule the law.