‘Peshawar BRT to cost Rs66 bn’

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), executing agency for the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, has said that the cost of the project has not been escalated and it still remains Rs66 billion.

A press release of the authority here on Wednesday said that the loan agreement between the government of Pakistan and French Development Agency (FDA) for the project was concluded last year and the same is executed now after completion of codal formalities and it has nothing to do with the price increase.

The PDA clarified that the revision of PC-1 was approved by ECNEC for Rs66 billion in November 2018 and only then the agreement materialised between FDA and the government.

The Peshawar BRT project is co-financed by Asian Development Bank (ADB), FDA and provincial government wherein ADB is pitching in $335 million and FDA is financing to the tune of 130 million Euros and the rest of the expenses are being borne by the government of KP. It, however, reiterated that the project is in its final stages of completion with corridor being complete by 90 percent and work on stations is in full swing. The project is the biggest in the history of this province and March 23 has been given a deadline for the soft opening of the project.