The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has stopped the probe into possible irregularities of multi-billion zero point interchange (ZPI) project as it could not find anything substantial during investigation of the said project. A couple of months ago, the FIA had seized record of the costly ZPI project to probe some possible irregularities which had increased the scope of its work by 100 per cent. The CDA spokesman said after exhaustive probe into the ZPI project of Capital Development Authority (CDA), the FIA concluded the inquiry and intimated the CDA nothing could traced during investigation.
The estimate cost of the said project was Rs 2 billion at the time of its initiation but additional work on the said project doubled the cost to Rs 4 billion. The work enhanced as construction of 16-km roads on the four sides of ZPI was included in the main project. Additional work of the project was also awarded to the same construction firm which was already executing the project launched in September 2008.
But what the controversy appeared in the award of additional work was that additional 16-km road (8 lanes road each from Peshawar Mor and 7th Avenue crossing Zero Point) had to be constructed at the same rate (72 percent above the estimated cost) on which the interchange was being constructed. The additional work was awarded to avoid bottlenecks and traffic congestion on two sides of the under-construction interchange.
However, the statement issued by the CDA said that FIA started the subject enquiry some six months back for which complete record of the project was provided to the investigating agency by CDA. After a detailed scrutiny of all aspects of the project, engineering quality tests were performed by the FIA and results were confirmed from various independent testing laboratories, however, no irregularity was found. On the directions of CDA Chairman Engineer Farkhand Iqbal, the concerned formation and officers of the authority vigorously followed the case leading to its culmination in favour of the authority, it added.
Amid lot of controversies arising out of the construction of national monument at a cliff near Zero Point crossing, the ZPI project was formally started in September 2008 and later in July 2011, Prime Minister Gilani had inaugurated the project. The Zero Point is one of the busiest traffic points in Islamabad and the project was started with a view to overcome increasing traffic pressure of almost 150,000 vehicles passing through the Interchange area daily.
