An accountability court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Peshawar approved the National Accountability Bureau’s plea on Friday to freeze 17 bank accounts of the two contractors in a case on the alleged corruption in the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.

The court also ordered the national graft buster to seal the residential plots of the contractors as it gave the nod to the orders of the NAB director general.

The counsel of NAB informed the court that the anti-graft body was investigating the BRT scandal.

The decision comes as the JV contractors of the Peshawar BRT project invoked the provisions of the contract and approached the International Court of Arbitration to pay them Rs57 billion in outstanding disputed amounts.

If the claim is accepted, the total cost of BRT Peshawar will exceed Rs120 billion, according to The News. The contractor has demanded money for increasing the scope of the project, frequent changes in design, escalation & price adjustment, delayed payments, financial charges, retention amount and interest on all outstanding amounts.

According to a Peshawar Development Authority official, the dispute could not be resolved amicably between the two parties due to the NAB inquiries.

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Last year, it was reported that the BRT was facing imminent closure due to the provincial government’s failure to pay around Rs1 billion in dues to five private companies managing different sections of the public transport system.

Daewoo Pakistan had said its amount to be cleared by the government had surged from Rs450 million last month to Rs750 million. Four other companies had also claimed Rs300 million from the government for their services.