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The government has not approved the draft of National Highways Authority (NHA) policy regarding leasing land along the roads, expressing fear that the proposed policy, in its present form, would lead to corruption and wrongdoing in the valuation process, official sources told Business Recorder.
The ECC was informed that, under the direction of the Prime Minister in February 2008, Ministry of Communication would prepare a draft of policy regarding leasing of right of way (RoW). According to the proposed policy, inventory of all assets along the National Highway (NHA) network within RoW, such as land, structures, filling stations and other amenities would be maintained and updated by the Authority itself for future leasing.
It has also been proposed that the NHA would identify the prime zones/sites and confirm their availability, taking into consideration future development plans in these areas. The verified sites would be widely published in the print media by NHA for ensuring transparent bidding. The Communication Ministry had also indicated, on behalf of the NHA, that all bids received would be opened by the bid opening committee, notified by Ministry of Communications, and the highest bidder would be declared successful. The committee under no circumstances would consider a single bid, the draft of policy said, according to sources.
"If only a single bid is received, after two efforts in remote and under-developed areas, the bid will be processed on the fixed reserved price of NHA, for that particular site or the bid offer, which ever is higher" the sources quoted the Communication Ministry as suggesting. Sources said that when the issue was placed in the previous meeting of the ECC, most of the members observed that a public-private partnership (PPP) model should have been incorporated in the policy, instead of NHA model, which could lead to encroachment of RoW on both sides of the national highways.
It was also mentioned that the minimum price of land, as notified by DCOs of every district, was generally low, and NHA should have gone for market rates as it would fetch many times more revenue for the government, sources added.
"Bid opening and evaluation would be seriously challenged and lead to corruption and confusion," sources quoted ECC members as saying. The ECC was of the view that the issue of procuring NoC within 90 days of the bidding should be done prior to the bidding process. The language of leasing policy was also termed as unsatisfactory by the members. The meeting was informed that there would be no transparency issues as the bidding process would be open and the lease would be temporary in nature and the leased land could be evacuated on demand by NHA for public purpose.
According to sources, apprehension were expressed that the lease policy might entail construction of permanent structures on both sides of the national highways which should not be permissible as in the event of road widening the government would have to pay compensation for the structures at exorbitant rates. Construction on NHA roads was completely banned previously, keeping this problem in view, it was pointed out.
The Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance, Shaukat Tarin, who was presiding over the meeting, recommended that NHA should adopt public-private partnership model which would take care of all future problems arising out of this lease proposal.
After detailed discussion, a committee was constituted, under the chairmanship of Minister for Communications, with Ministers for Ports and Shipping, Privatisation, and Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas as members. Secretary, Communications, will act as member/Secretary. The committee will finalise its recommendations on leasing RoW within a month and resubmit to the ECC for approval under PPP model.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2009

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