KALMA CHOWK FLYOVER

Kalma Chowk Flyover is a flyover and a road bridge passing over the main square
of Lahore. It is passing through the kalma chawk.
The heavy traffic flow around kalma chowk located at the intersection of ferozpur road
and main boulevard Gulberg,Garden town necessitated costruction of flyover to ease
the traffic conjestion.
This flyover was made due to the heavy traffic on the ferozpur road because of traffic
mess at Kalma Chowk, motorists had to face enormous difficulties and precious time of
commuters, including students and patients, was waste. Around 400,000 vehicles
passed daily from Kalma Chowk which often created traffic problems .

A work breakdown structure (WBS), in project management and systems

engineering, is a deliverable-oriented decomposition of a project into smaller
components.

This bridge containing two bones and connected between ferospur road over the kalma
chowk before that bridge no one wants to go from that side because there is always
terrific jam after that bridge ferozpur traffic go through and through this bridge become
ease of acces to all the roads.

The construction on the project started on 5th march,2011 and flyover was inagurated
on independence day of Pakistan 14th august 2011.
The project was to construct two flyovers each,575 meter long with the structural
requirement of concrete with compressive strength of 4000 psi and one hour retention.
The challenge for contractor,National logistic cells NLC was to construct the flyover
within 5 months period as the heavy traffic at intersecting road could not be diverted for
long.As proposed by the consultant NESPAK heavy flow at the flyover required strict
compliance of contruction and concrete standard.

The project was started by the Punjab Government on march5,2011 and completed in a
record period in 135 days.Project cost was Rs. 2 billion .

Type

Description

Construction Cost

Rs. 1 Billion

Length

2 Flyovers 575 Meters each

Construction Period Record period of construction in just 135 days

Owner

Communication and Works Department Govt. of Punjab, LahorePunjab

Consultant

Nespak

Contractor

NLC and Habib Construction Services

The National Engineering and Services Pakistan (NESPAK) was in charge of

designing the flyover. Although, the chief engineer of the Communications and
Works (C&W) Department claims that the design had been completed before
work started, other officials of the department say otherwise. Officials said the
consultants did not have enough time to design the project properly as they were
under pressure from the chief minister to start the work immediately.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, the C&W Department secretary announced

the cost of the project as Rs2.3 billion. Now that cost has increased to Rs2.62
billion.

A C&W Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The

Express Tribune that from the start there were mistakes in the designs.

The total number of bridge piers on both the flyovers is 22 with 104 bridge piles
(each pier has 4 to 5 piles). The officials said that when they received the design
of a pier they started work and as the work was about to finish, NESPAK handed
them another drawing of the same pier.

He said this was a mismanagement of manpower, resources and time. It had

also, he added, increased the cost of the project. He said they had no option but
to obey orders.

He said that time was precious and the mistakes were being made as Sharif
wanted the flyover completed by August 14. The departments, he added, had no
other choice but to kowtow to Sharifs orders.

C&W Department chief engineer Munawar Bashir told The Tribune that changes
in the drawings were not a big issue and such changes happened all the time in
projects. He said at times dimensions need to be altered due to technical
reasons. Bashir denied that any money had been wasted due to the changes in
the drawings.

The Urban Planners and Environmental controllers criticized this project. The
government has also planned to construct the Rapid Rail System. The Kalma
chowk is the route of the green line of the Rapid Rail System.

If the Rapid Rail System is to be build this project will be demolished within a
year. According to a study being conducted by the Japanese International
Cooperation Agency 40 per cent of commuters in Lahore are pedestrians and 22
per cent use public buses so the majority of citizens arent benefitting from the
high budget project.

SYED SAQIB SHAH

030-R