Peshawar BRT management dismisses corruption allegations as 'baseless'

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar Bus-Rapid-Transit (BRT) management on Wednesday dismissed the allegations levelled against it by a former engineer as "baseless".

Senior engineer Gohar Muhammad Khan, associated with the Peshawar BRT, resigned earlier in the day citing "huge corruption" in the project as the reason. 

The BRT management, rejecting the accusations, said Gohar Khan was hired as assistant resident engineer two weeks ago, on May 11. He was absent from work on at least six days during his reportedly two-week-long stint with the infrastructure project, it said.  

"Engineer Gohar Muhammad Khan was let go from BRT on May 28.

"[He] did not understand the work [pertaining to the BRT] and the accusations he has made are childish," the management said in its statement.

Gohar Khan, in his resignation letter, wrote, "The contractor has been paid a huge amount for nothing," and said the issue needed "to be addressed".

"A huge corruption is involved," Gohar said, noting that the BRT project's quality and quantity "suffered due to poor supervision by the consultants and [the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA)]".

Peshawar BRT engineer resigns over poor 'quality and quantity', 'corruption'

'The contractor has been paid a huge amount for nothing,' which, Engineer Gohar Khan said, was something that 'needs to be addressed'

He explained that a structural failure could occur at "any time due to poor foundation provided to the BRT and, as a result, casualties and damages can happen at any time in future".

Considering his position at the BRT as an assistant engineer, Gohar went on to say, "The contractor has not yet submitted any schedule for the completion of BRT project nor progress report has been submitted to any concerned department.

"The contractor of the project has [sublet] the entire project to different non-technical people who don't even know about construction."

He further claimed that the site inspector did not have any "drawings and specifications of the project" with him to help guide the engineers.

"The engineers were found just to visit the site without any drawing and specifications."

He said he had no choice but to resign after he received no response from either the consultants, Mott MacDonald Pakistan (MMP) or the director-general of the PDA after he advised that "necessary action regarding the project execution" needed to be taken.

Spiralling problems at TransPeshawar

Earlier this month, Javed Iqbal, the chairperson of TransPeshawar's Board of Directors, resigned from his post after the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) blamed the company for a delay in the launch of the BRT.

TransPeshawar is responsible for the BRT project design, procurement, implementation, on-going BRT operations, and service contract management.

TransPeshawar BoD chair quits over BRT delay matter

Javed Iqbal has said dismissal of company’s CEO was unfair

Sources informed Geo News that Iqbal resigned to protest the removal of Altaf Durrani, the company’s chief executive officer, and claimed that the decision was unfair and wrong.

In a letter written to the company’s Board, Iqbal asserted that Pervez Khattak, the chief minister of KP, set unrealistic dates for the BRT project's completion.

However, Khattak said the project was to be completed in six months but would now be launched in eight months, and that buses purchased for the system would be delivered in June.

Also earlier this month, the chief executive officer of TransPeshawar was removed by the provincial government over 'poor performance' that reportedly led to the delay in the inauguration of BRT project.