City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has given a last opportunity to private firms to complete the construction of pedestrian bridges being built on Built, Operate, Transfer (BOT) basis in the metropolis, within the stipulated period.
Officials of transport and communication department (T&CD) of the CDGK told Business Recorder on Wednesday about the emergency meeting called by the executive district officer (EDO) of T&CD to discuss the project delay with the sponsoring private firms.
Earlier, City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal had issued orders to revoke the agreement of all private firms supporting the project financially owing to delay in completion of construction of the schemes. However, later the T&CD took initiative to evolve a proper strategy to somehow come out with proposal for the construction of the project to have been at snail's pace. The officials of the private firms had been informed that if they failed to complete the project within the specified period, the CDGK could revoke their agreement as it had done already with a private firm, the officials added.
The representative of private firms apprised the CDGK officials about the various reasons, which delayed the completion of the project. They were of the view that delay in project had been caused by other uplift schemes being carried out in the same area, which made its progress slow.
They ensured that pedestrian bridges at Awami Markaz on Sharea Faisal would be completed by the end of August, while the project in front of the Farooq-e-Azam Mosque in North Nazimabad had entered into its final phase of completion.