PESHAWAR: Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader in the upper house, and a prominent businessman from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Senator Ilyas Amad Bilour has termed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project as a source of severe mental stress and permanent difficulty for dwellers of Peshawar.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, Senator Ilyas Bilour said that the contractor of the project, in his lust for a commission, has turned the ‘city of flowers’ into a city of dust. “Ill-planning of KP government and slow pace of construction has created a serious traffic mess in the provincial metropolis, making life miserable for city dwellers,” Bilour added.
The recent rain which caused accumulation of water further aggravated the distress, he went on to say.
The senator claimed that the mega BRT project had been launched without preparation of its feasibility and PC 1. During the last four months, after the project was launched, the whole of Peshawar city has been turned into ditches giving a look of ruins, he continued.
“There is no place in the city where digging has not been carried out for getting commission,” Bilour alleged. He also said that the population of the provincial metropolis including students, businessmen, women and elderly persons are facing severe difficulties due to the launching of this ill-planned project.
In an apparent reference to KP chief minister’s inauguration of the zoo in Peshawar on Monday, the senator mocked that the chief minister had made the whole Peshawar city as a `zoo’.
He said due to the accumulation of rainwater especially at the sites where digging has been done for BRT project, vehicles have been damaged badly due to inundation of muddy water.
“This senseless government and its representatives have no concern with difficulties being faced by people who face the severe traffic clogging on a daily basis while going to their workplaces and educational institutions,” Bilour said.
Ilyas Bilour also said that the whole leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) made fake claims as there is a complete difference in their statements and acts.
He also requested chief justice of Pakistan, Peshawar High Court and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman to take notice of irregularities in BRT project and issue directives for early completion of this project which has made the life of Peshawar’s residents miserable.
