Despite passage of eight years and expenditure of more than Rs 200 million, the Gorakh Hill project is still in limbo due to lack of political will of rulers and apathy of bureaucracy bosses.
According to details, to provide facilities of a hill station the government had decided to develop a hill station at Gorakh area and Rs 1 billion were earmarked for it in August 1998 and Rs 45.252 millionn initially released. However despite passage of eight years and availability of funds this project failed to take off.
Later, the PC-1 of the project was revised and Rs 198.269 million were released on February 24, 2004. These funds were meant for constructing a road from Wahi Pandhi to Gorakh Hill at the cost of Rs 86.353 million, development of water supply scheme at the cost of Rs 34.636 million and purchasing vehicles and other equipment at the cost of rupees eight million. Sources said that from these funds only a Katcha road from Wahi Pandhi to Gorakh was constructed besides erecting a two-room rest house at the site of the project. The then Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah during his visit to the area took serious notice of poor quality of road and a probe into it.
According to original planning, the Gorakh Hill project included development of a waterfall, a cable chair lift from the Gorakh Hill to the Chokor Hill, a 10-bed hospital, water filter plant, security check post and race course, but no work had been initiated on any of these projects.
The completion date of the project was December 31, 2005, which was later extended to June 2006, but till now the project awaited even basic work. The sources said that current position was that the night watchman of the project was waiting for his monthly salary.
The Gorakh Hill is not only a recreational resort, but it would provide a tax revenue of millions of rupees to the state coffers, as it was estimated that some 0.2 million local and foreign tourists would visit this beautiful hill station every year.
The sources said that President General Pervez Musharraf had taken a serious notice that despite release of funds and passage of eight years only one road of the project was completed till yet.
They said that he had instructed Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim to pay a personal visit to the Gorakh Hill and submit him a report into current status of the project. They said that the Sindh chief minister would soon visit the area.
Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi has said that the work on road and water supply schemes of Gorakh Hill would now be completed by September 2006.
Talking to newsmen here, he said that after the completion of the project areas people would find more job openings. He said that the project of Gaaj Dam would also bring a new era of prosperity for the area people.
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