The Capital Development Authority (CDA) approved the bid of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) for the extension of the Islamabad Expressway from PWD to Grand Trunk (G.T.) Road.
The CDA board under the Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed’s guidance discussed several matters including the bid worth about Rs 11 billion of the FWO to expand 7 kilometers of the expressway from the current two to four lanes including the expansion of the Soan Bridge.
According to the sources, once the expansion project started, it will be completed in 18 months. In the recent past, the CDA panel gave approval to the civic body to implement the project through a government contractor under 42(F) Rules of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA), which permits state-run organizations to directly contract with other government-owned units.
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Moreover, CDA had asked for bids from government firms. Both FWO and National Logistics Cell (NLC) participated in the process; FWO quoted Rs 10.9 billion whereas NLC quoted Rs 11.7 billion. CDA, therefore, accepted FWO’s bid as it was affordable.
As per CDA officials, the civic agency had already constructed several interchanges on the Islamabad Expressway and carried out interventions to ease the traffic flow, however, they had not been of much use. They stated they had the only option to expand the busy road to G.T. Road to resolve the prolonged traffic issue.
The road starting from Faisal Mosque has already been expanded till Koral and PWD stop. But, after PWD, traffic gets blocked all of a sudden as the road from this point onwards narrows down to two lanes.
Currently, the FWO is completing another project under which a 2 km portion of the road from Korang Bridge to PWD is being extended.
They added that the road handles both local and heavy traffic, mostly plying between Islamabad and Lahore. It is an important link between Punjab, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as it is linked with G.T. Road at Rawat.
