Amraiz Khan
With work still incomplete at the Firdous Market underpass, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday did not inaugurate the project as was planned on Wednesday. Deadlines have been revised several times for the first mega project launched by the PTI government in the city, which was initially supposed to be completed in three months well before August-end.
The inauguration was an important part of the prime minister’s visit to Lahore although he reached the provincial capital on Wednesday morning. But the ceremony has now been removed from his schedule and the new date for the purpose would be announced in a day or two.
Actually, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar was very disappointed, media reports suggested at that time when Imran could not open the underpass for the public during his last trip to Lahore.
The firm unable to complete the BRT Peshawar project would construct an underpass in the provincial capital of Punjab, as the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) awarded the contract to Maqbool Associates after it gave the lowest bid.
The initial estimated cost of the project was Rs1.09 billion; however, its bid was just over Rs970 million. Meanwhile, the price tags of the two rival bidders NLC and Habib Construction Services were over Rs1 billion and more than Rs996 million respectively.
Meanwhile, the Maqbool Associates had previously worked on the Lahore Metro Bus project. It is one of the two companies executing the BRT Peshawar project – a venture facing severe criticism because of a two-and-half-year delay. According to sources, the LDA prequalified the firm at the very last moment, as they also said that the move was a result of political pressure.
