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#GEOBREAKINGNEWS - BRT report highlights faulty planning, technical errors, poor management- 03 April 2019 | #GEONEWS

PESHAWAR: The much-awaited inquiry report on the multi-billion and long-delayed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Peshawar is finally out, and it highlights a multitude of technical errors, faulty design and inept planning that caused heavy losses to the exchequer.

The 27-page report, compiled by the Provincial Inspection Team on the orders of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Mahmood Khan, was submitted to the government on January 30.

The damning report has listed the following findings:

a) That, havoc has been played with the public money through faulty planning and designing, negligence in execution of work, and poor management of the project. The relevant reports of the consultant like feasibility study, drainage report, geotechnical report, highway report, structure report, traffic report, survey and utilities report etc. were found deficient resulting into frequent design changes during execution of work causing delay in timely completion of the work as well as loss to the public exchequer.

b) That the BRT corridor should have been preferably made elevated throughout its length which could have avoided the present traffic jam and also catered by future increase in mixed traffic. Presently the traffic congestion has been found at places where the BRT stations have been constructed at-grid rather than underground. Further, the post-BRT carriageway width for mixed traffic at the locations of BRT bus stations have been reduced by 40 percent on average as compared to pre-BRT conditions. Moreover, the non-maintenance of uniform number of lanes for mixed traffic through BRT route had created funnel like situation/bottleneck at the locations of BRT bus stations which added to the cause of traffic congestion.

c) That, in Reach-III of the project at the University Road, the approaches for the BRT bus stations near University of Peshawar and Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE) Peshawar colony have been constructed on walkways adjacent to government buildings. These approaches could have been constructed by acquiring small piece of land from government entities free of cost which would have removed hindrance from the walkways. Further, the canopies of the underpasses have also contributed in reducing width of the carriageway for mixed traffic.

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