ISLAMABAD:
While two mega interchanges worth Rs 8 billion are under construction in the federal capital, the district administration has decided to construct an additional underpass at the Murree Road-Srinagar expressway junction to facilitate traffic flow.
Once completed, this underpass will ensure signal-free traffic flow from Murree and Kashmir to Srinagar Highway. On the other hand, the 60-day deadline to complete the under-construction Serena Interchange passed on January 5, but work on the project is still ongoing.
However, the underpass connecting Khayaban-e-Suharwardi to Aabpara has been completed and will be opened for traffic on January 11. The second ongoing project, the F-8 swap, was scheduled to be completed in three months, on February 5, with one of its underpasses already operational in a record time of 42 days.
A senior Capital Development Authority (CDA) official told The Express PAkGazette that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif laid the foundation stone of the two mega interchanges under construction, costing Rs 8 billion, on November 5. Due to the delay in providing construction designs, work began on November 12, as a result, the Serena Interchange project, originally scheduled for completion on January 5, is still in its final stages, it added.
It was initially decided to open one of its underpasses, which was built on the Khayaban-e-Suharwardi side, on January 8, but Home Minister Mohsin Naqvi directed the CDA chairman to open the access roads to the traffic along with the underpasses constructed and No inauguration ceremony will be held but the entire construction work of the interchange will be inaugurated immediately by the prime minister, the official added.
According to the CDA official, two underpasses under construction on the Islamabad Club side will also be completed on January 20, while all efforts are being made to complete the project 100% by the last week of this month.
On the other hand, CDA Chairman Muhammad Ali Randhawa along with Member Engineering and other senior officials visited Murree Road on Thursday. This time, keeping in mind the traffic problems, the proposal to construct an underpass at the Srinagar Highway junction at Murree Road was considered.
Randhawa said the construction of the underpass would provide convenience to citizens coming to Islamabad from Murree and Kashmir and ordered that the underpass at Srinagar Expressway junction at Murree Road be connected with the Serena Interchange project.
In the briefing, the President was informed that soil testing work has been started for the construction of the underpass at Srinagar Expressway junction at Murree Road. He was further informed that design and planning work, including feasibility, has also been initiated for construction of underpass at Srinagar Expressway junction at Murree Road.
The CDA chief said that the construction of the underpass would solve long-standing traffic problems in Islamabad permanently, and directed that the design of the underpass at Srinagar Expressway junction at Murree Road be submitted soon.
After the construction of the underpass, all traffic coming from Murree to Srinagar Expressway will be signless, he added.
