RAWALPINDI: The Rehabilitation of Metro Corridor from Saddar to Faizabad project is moving at a snail`s pace and it will likely be completed by March-end.

The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) started the work on the rehabilitation of the metro corridor from Saddar to Faizabad for Rs718.945 million, and the work was supposed to be completed by December 2024.

The December deadline for the project was reset to mid-January and now to the end of March.

The Punjab Masstransit Authority hired Nespak as a consultant and asked the RDA to take up the task as it had executed the project in 2014.

A senior RDA official told Dawn that the work on the elevated road was almost completed, and a month would be needed to complete it.

`Mostly the work is being done at night; however, in the morning, the construction work is carried out on only one side of the road, while the second lane is opened to the bus traffic,` he said.

He said that for the last two weeks, the work to repair the joints of the metro elevated track from Saddar to Faizabad could not be completed.

Apart from this, safety walls of the track were being repaired. He claimed that the work was almost completed from Faizabad to Hamza Camp.

He said the RDA requested the Punjab Masstransit Authority to close the track for `a week or two, but the request was rejected.

On the other hand, Punjab Masstransit Authority General Manager Operation Ozair Shah claimed that 96 per cent of the work had been completed, hoping that by March 23 the project would be completed.

He said the RDA had requested the PMA to close the track for a week, but it was not possible as more than 120,000 passengers travelled between Rawalpindi and Islamabad daily.

He claimed that the number of commuters did not reduce during the construction work due to the measures taken by the authority to make the journey comfortable.

He said the PMA also asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to repair the track from Faizabad to Pakistan Secretariat.

`The CDA is not responding to letters of the PMA. We have decided to contact the federal government to initiate the work,` he said.

Over the past nine years, the track in Islamabad has developed potholes, making it difficult for the bus drivers to maintain speed. He said that for the safety of the passengers, it was necessary to repair the track.

He said that in Islamabad, a 14.6 km track is on the ground, starting from Faizabad to the Pak Secretariat via IJP Road and 9th Avenue.

It may be mentioned here that the metro project was completed in 2014, and the federal and Punjab governments almost equally shared the Rs44.8 billion cost. Of it, the Rawalpindi section had cost Rs19.17 billion and the Islamabad section Rs23.84 billion. The track had 24 stations for the passengers. Of these, 10 are on Murree Road while 14 are in Islamabad.