ISLAMABAD - The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is planning to knock on the doors of the Asian Development Bank (ADP) for a forensic audit of the Peshawar Bus Rapid (BRT) project.
During the last 6 months, the BRT project only met 6% of its planned development targets.
ADB will ascertain the reasons behind the slow speed and poor quality of work in BRT.
Once ADB submits its findings, all those will be held accountable who are found involved in the slow development of the BRT.
According to reports surfacing in media, ADB will establish whether the PDA, contractors, engineers, or consultants are guilty of the slow pace of development work.
Responding to a query regarding BRT, Shaukat Yousafzai, Information Minister of KPK, said that the development work for BRT is near completion and the BRT project will be inaugurated on time. Yousafzai termed the criticism over the increased cost of the BRT as unnecessary and uncalled for.
However, according to the additional chief secretary of KPK, work on BRT is progressing at snail’s pace. In the last 6 months, the project made just 1% progress. The project is set to miss yet another deadline due to slow development work.
Construction on the BRT started in 2017. KPK government promised to complete the project within 6 months. The project has missed a total of 8 inauguration deadlines, with 23rd March 2019 being the latest. The overall cost of BRT has jumped to Rs. 68 billion from an initial Rs. 49 billion.