Islamabad-The National Highway and Motorway Police (NHMP) forced the transporters to return more than Rs12 million to 74,485 passengers overcharged during the days of this Eidul Fitr.
According to the police officials, the action was taken on the directions of Inspector General Shaukat Hayat. The passengers had approached NHMP against overcharging and overloading by the transporters during Eidul Fitr. The NHMP took action in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attok, Jhelum, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Lahore, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Chakwal, Maltan, Okara, Khanewal, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, Moro, Hyderabad, Karachi and many other districts against the complaints of overcharging by the transporters. Furthermore, 5,138 tickets were issued to Public Services Vehicles (PSVs) for overcharging, making the amount more than Rs5 million rupees as fine.
Besides, 9104 tickets were issued to PSVs for overloading of passengers making the amount more than 10 million rupees as, said the NH&MP officials and added 22232 passengers were offloaded and 1070 PSVs were returned from Toll Plazas during the Eid days.
Meanwhile, the Executive Board of the National Highway Authority (NHA) approved award of work for dualisation and improvement of Old Bannu Road during a meeting held at NHA head office on Monday with Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar in the chair.
The project is divided into three packages. The NHA officials said the first package (Domail to Khurrum) is 40km-long and was awarded to the Frontier Works Organisation (the lowest evaluated bidder) at the bid price of Rs7.132 billion. This is 5.43 per cent below the engineer’s estimate.
The second package (Khurrum to Krapa) is 35km long and was awarded to the Frontier Works Organisation (the lowest evaluated bidder) at the bid price of Rs5.927 billion. This is 8.63 per cent below the engineer’s estimate. The third package (Gaandi Chowk to Sarai Naurang) is 8km long and was awarded to M/s NCC-IKAN-HRPL JV (the lowest evaluated bidder) at the bid price of Rs0.718 billion. This is 23 percent below the Engineer’s estimate.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chairman NHA said the development of infrastructure in the smaller provinces was among the top most priorities. He informed the meeting that the existing road was single carriage which will be dualized and improved. He said the project would provide heavy traffic movement on Indus Highway (N-55) with an alternate route from Gaandi Chowk to Krapa thus sharing the traffic burden with N-55. He said the project ran through the less developed areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and would contribute their economic uplift through accelerated trade activities. He said a number of other important road projects, including the Western Corridor and Hazara Motorway (E-35), were under construction in the province whose timely completion is NHA’s top priority. He said the project would be financed through Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) and completed in two years.