Rs3.1bn first phase is 45% done; dust from the half-built corridor adds to one of Lahore’s worst smog hotspots.
LAHORE: Five months after its deadline passed, the Rs3.1 billion first phase of the Barki Road widening is less than half finished, with 24 electricity poles still standing in the middle of the carriageway and sewerage work threatening further delays, according to the Lahore Development Authority’s own progress briefing.
The 6.1 km stretch is meant to become a six-lane road, three lanes each way, under a scheme for the dualisation of Barki Road from Abdullah Gul Interchange towards Ghawindi check post. Launched last year, the first phase was due for completion by June 2026.
LDA Director General Tahir Farooq inspected the site on Nov 4 and was told about 45% of the road work was complete, with water-bound macadam laid on 60% of the route.
Officials said 108 electricity poles along the corridor must be moved, 24 of them in the middle of the road. The Lahore Electric Supply Company has installed replacement poles on the roadside, and shifting was scheduled to take place during planned power cuts in the coming days.
The project director flagged coordination problems with the Water and Sanitation Agency, warning that stretches requiring new sewer lines could slip further. Farooq ordered LESCO to speed up the relocations and directed regular water sprinkling to keep down dust. No revised completion date was announced.
Money, not engineering, slowed the work
LDA engineers have previously blamed funding. Chief engineer Israr Saeed said in July that “meagre allocation of funds” had delayed the scheme, and a reader’s complaint published in September attributed the stoppage to non-payment of the contractor.
Apart from drainage work, construction had either halted or slowed to a crawl for much of the summer, residents said at the time, leaving a dismantled road through the monsoon.
Life on a half-built road
For the people who use it, the toll is daily. The road serves two large housing societies and a growing population along Lahore’s eastern edge, and residents have complained of accidents, damaged vehicles, choked traffic, lost business and clouds of dust.
Dr Ahmad Naeem Akhtar, a resident of Paragon City, urged the chief minister in July to intervene, asking that the government plan diversions before digging up a road and pointing to the strain on parents doing the school run.
Residents have called for work in three shifts, regular sprinkling on the broken surface and an early finish.
A smog hotspot
The dust has an air-quality cost. During Monday’s smog peak, IQAir’s station at Burki Road near Paragon recorded an index of 748, among the worst in the city, and the road was still at 370 on Tuesday morning. The EPA’s own Barki Road station read 288 on Nov 7.
Construction dust is one of the local sources the provincial government is targeting with sprinkling and mechanised road washing, and Lahore has also put Pakistan’s first electric sweeper truck on the Ring Road, which links up with Barki Road.
Bigger plans for the corridor
The stakes for the road are rising. In February, the LDA’s governing body approved the commercialisation of Barki Road from the Ring Road to the BRB Canal, which will bring more shops, offices and traffic to a road that is still unfinished.
The Punjab government has promised district road maintenance squads and a no-quality-check, no-handover rule for new roads. For Barki Road’s commuters, the more pressing question is when the money and the poles will finally move.
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