ISLAMABAD: The multi-million Margalla Town underpass project saw abrupt closure when the civic agency identified technical flaws in its own approved design after launching work and spending millions of rupees on it.

The project was launched in year 2020 as part of Rawal Town interchange project, and so farmillions of rupees have been spent on it. The residents of Margalla Town have expressed serious concerns over the civic agency`s decision to halt the project and have written to the prime minister to intervene.

The underpass is part of the interchange and flyover project. It should have been completed together with the interchange, but the CDA paid slight focus on it until the completion of interchange project only to stop halfway because of a fault in the design.

A source said if there was a fault in the design, why the project was launched and millions of rupees were spent on it. `This issue raisesa big question mark on CDA`s efficiency. If it is established that the design is faulty, then the responsibility should be fixed and funds already spent recovered from those involved,` he said.

The underpass project worth about Rs380 million was started a few months ago and a considerable progress had been made on it.

`There is no justification for stopping construction work after spending millions of rupees. We came to know that the project was stopped due to political interference,` a resident said.

He said a delegation of town residents had held meetings with the CDA chairman and the member engineering for early restart of theconstruction work, but so far no steps have been taken in this regard.

The residents of the area alleged that due to politician pressure the CDA now wanted to construct the underpass about 200 metres from the current location towards the interchange side so that residents of Rawal Town could also get access from it.

They said a substantial amount had already been spent on the project and now there was no justification of abandoning it, adding if a link was imperative for residents of Rawal Town, the CDA should explore new options for providing excess to them.

`But how the CDA could stop anongoing project,` said a resident of Margalla Town. If the civic agency wants to close down the project, funds already spent should be recovered from those who started the project with a faulty design, he said.

On the other hand, a senior officer of CDA confirmed to Dawn that the project had been stopped `temporally`, adding there was a fault in the design of the underpass and it should not have been started at the current location.

Had it been constructed at the ideal place some 200 metres from the current site, it would have been more beneficial, the official said.

He said that there was no politi-cal interference rather just because of the design issue the project was stopped for the time being. The officer said the design of the project had been shared with a government owned consultant firm, which was currently working on it.

`The consultant may advise us to continue the project or askfor a new site,` the official said, adding the 1-8 interchange had been constructed with a faulty design which was a constant nightmare for motorists and the CDA alike.

`We don`t want to put the life of motorists at risk, that`s why the design is being reviewed. We have not decided about abandoning the project,` he said.