–CM Khattak says TransPeshwar will be completed by end of July
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has accused the federal government for delay in the mega projects, especially the TransPeshwar project.
Khattak, while addressing in an inaugural ceremony of Women University, Mardan, stated that federal government has caused delays in various developmental projects such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Swat Expressway.
This is the first time that the KP government blamed the Centre for delays in its project.
Khattak has inaugurated Swat Expressway’s 14 out of 80 Kms just ahead of the completion of his tenure that will end on May 28.
With increasing expenditures of the BRT project, opposition and general public alike are criticising KP government for the delays.
Lashing out at the government, a leader of the Awami National Party’s (ANP) leader alleged that Swat Expressway’s contractor Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) will be gaining benefits from provincial resources, estimated to be around Rs 11 billion.
Ex-provincial minister Zia Ullah Khan Afridi termed the allegations levelled by the CM against the federal government as baseless. The KP government is blaming the federal administration for its own shortcomings, he said.
Furthermore, Afridi ruled out the completion of BRT project by the end of July. He said, “People of Peshawar will be lucky if this project even gets completed by the end of the current calendar year.”
However, PTI’s Shaukat Yousafzai defended the provincial government, saying that the federal government delayed issuing NOC pertaining to the Cantonment Board properties for the project. He assured that the project will end in July.
Earlier, BRT expenditures were estimated to be Rs 46 billion which later increased to Rs 57 billion and then to Rs 69 billion.