RAWALPINDI:Fifteenmonths after the metro bus project was completed, at a cost of Rs44.8 billion, water leakage from the 8.6 kilometre metro bus track have not been controlled.

The elevated road over Murree Road, from The Mall to 9th Avenue, appears poorly constructed after contractors failed to make adequate arrangements for the drainage of water from thetrack.

Taking notice, the provincial government asked the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) to end the leakage points, but the slow pace of work has created difficulties for motorists, particularly motorcyclists.

In October 2015, a young man died when a cemented portion of the track fell on him as he was passing below it on a motorcycle.

After the incident, the provincial government asked the RDA to repair such points and make arrangements for water drainage from the elevated road.

It took the RDA a year to take action and work has not yet been completed. In the meantime, people continue to travel under the elevated road in fear of water and stones.The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MPA from Raja Bazaar and nearby areas, Ijaz Khan Jazi, told Dawn people had complained to the PTI leadership, to raise the issue of poor quality of work in the provincial assembly.

`The RDA was still spending money on this project. At present, the PML-N led government is making money on commissions in the name of the reconstruction of the metro bus and repairing leakage points,` he said.

Calling the project useless, the MPA said the Rs44.8 billion were spent without checking the quality of work. He said a total of 30 metro buses were running on the Saddar to Pakistan Secretariat route, instead of the claimed 100 bus fleet to serve 100,000 commuters a day.He said the RDA should end corruption within the civic body first, after which it would save public funds and work according to international construction standards.

RDA spokesperson Hafiz Irfan said the authority had started work to repair the lealcage points, which would be completed by the end of this year.

He said 80pc of the work had been completed, and the authority`s engineering branch was regularly looking into whether the contractor was using quality material.

`No funds are used for the repairs as the contractors were asked to do the work according to their agreement to do such work for two years after work on the project was complete d,` he ad ded.