ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is still unable to complete the Ataturk Avenue even after three years of project initiation.
The Ataturk Avenue, which is also called embassy road, is an alternate route to the Constitution Avenue. The project was initiated in 2017 during the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government but this could not be completed due to poor performance of the city managers.
The CDA Chairman, Amir Ali Ahmed, when contacted, said that the work on a small section of the Ataturk Avenue had to stop because of an environmental issue.
He said that the requirement of the Environmental Impact Assessment had been complied with, and the remaining work had been recommenced.
He expressed hope that the remaining work on the avenue would be completed in the next few days.
The project had to be kept on hold when the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) objected over cutting down of more than a 100 trees, which resulted in the project suspension for a year.
Later, the EPA allowed the CDA to resume work.
The CDA was supposed to complete it by November 2018 but then another dispute started with the Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (Iesco) over shifting of service lines.
However, the same dispute was resolved in July 2019 as both the organisations reached an agreement for shifting of service lines falling inside the alignment of road.
The road is under normal usage but still the final touch ups of layering the road, installations of signals, and line making are yet to be carried out.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020