News Reporter
Islamabad : The overly delayed Korang bridge-PWD Interchange part of the Islamabad Expressway is likely to be completed by December 31 this year and thrown open for better and smooth flow of traffic on the extremely congested inter-provincial road which passes through the federal capital.
The Member (Engineering) of the Capital Development Authority (CDA), Syed Munawar Shah, told ‘Media’ that the pace of work on this segment of the project has picked up satisfactorily since it was awarded to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO).
The whole project, which eventually has to transform the Islamabad Expressway from Faizabad to T-Chowk on GT (Grand Trunk) Road into a 5-line-a-side signal-free road is expected to be completed by the end of the year 2023. The Member (Engineering) said that the contract for the next segment of the project, from PWD onward up to T-Chowk has also been awarded to the FWO and the work has already started from September 21, 2022, on this part.
A senior officer engaged with the project told ‘Media’ that the staggering point in the project still is the bridge on the mainline railway track passing under the Islamabad Highway at Korang. “This part of the project is sort of tricky to handle on the west side (going towards Islamabad) because of its unusual span of length for a bridge. But we are expected it would not delay the completion too much,” the concerned officer disclosed.
“However, it would not cause any substantial delay in completion of the project,” he added.
The physical work on this project, which started back in October 2020 got bogged down, first because of the COVID-19 pandemic and later because of the unusual escalation of prices of necessary construction materials.
