Re-carpeting of 7th Avenue underway

Islamabad : The Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Ansar Aziz on Wednesday inspected the re-carpeting and maintenance work of the 7th Avenue being undertaken by Machinery Pool Organisation (MPO) Directorate of Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).

MPO Director Umer Sagheer apprised the mayor that repairs and maintenance is being carried out on both sides of 7th Avenue which would be completed within 10 days.

The mayor directed the director MPO to complete repair and maintenance work within the given days so that traffic issues in the vicinity could be eradicated. He also directed to ensure safety and precautionary measures to avoid any untoward incident.

Mayor of Islamabad said that during the fiscal year 2017-18, MPO Directorate has carried out repair / maintenance and carpeting of 206 kilometres on different roads by utilizing available resources, heavy machinery, human resource and asphalt plant. Total cost incurred was Rs569 million; however, if the same was carried out at external contractor rates it would have cost Rs900 million thus saved almost Rs331 million.

He said that previously, MPO Directorate was not properly functional and was continuous financial burden on the organisation. Moreover, due to being dysfunctional heavy machinery and asphalt plant, human resource of MPO was also not being utilised properly. However, MCI has made this formation fully operational and has saved Rs331 million in just one year.

The mayor said that during the current financial year, repair, maintenance and carpeting of 82 kilometres on different small and major roads would be carried out which would help save Rs97 million.

He said that the MPO Directorate has been tasked to complete the target within 186 days and no extension in this regard would be given. He said that expenditure amounting to Rs495 million will be incurred on repair, maintenance and carpeting of 82 kilometres roads. He said that if this work is carried out by the external contractors MCI would have to pay additional Rs297 million, however, by utilising own resources, machinery and asphalt plant Rs297 million would be saved during the current financial year.