Garho-Keti Bandar section project: Ministry urged to investigate 'undue' delay

ISLAMABAD: The Standing Committee on Communications took serious notice of undue delay in completion of Garho-Keti Bandar section and directed the ministry to hold an enquiry and submit a report to the committee within 15 days.

The committee met with Murtaza Javed Abbasi in the chair at Parliament House, on Monday.

The Member (South Zone) Karachi, National Highways Authority (NHA), briefed the committee regarding rehabilitation of Garho-Keti Bandar road.

He informed the committee that the Garho-Keti Bandar section (package III) is spread over 25km, which has been 52.13 percent completed.

He said that the commencement date of the project was 25th June 2010 and revised date of completion was 25th December 2013.

The contractor has suspended the work since July 2013 and currently, the case is under Court of Law, he said.

The bill titled, "The Pakistan Postal Services (Amendment) Bill, 2019" (moved by Amjad Ali Khan, MNA) was presented and the committee decided to defer the bill till its next meeting.

The bill was deferred as the concerned member (mover) was not present.

The committee was also briefed about the Sassui (Chilia) Toll Plaza. It was informed that the toll plaza is located at km 100 + 500. The invitation for the bid was floated in press on 31 March 2021, and the contract was awarded on net guaranteed monthly fixed revenue basis to M/s Shah Latif Enterprises that is operating on fixed revenue basis of Rs3.2 million.

The committee desired six months' comparative data on count of traffic (heavy/light transport vehicles) passing through the Sassui (Chilia) toll plaza and detail regarding all bidders.

The representative of the NHA briefed the committee on construction of additional carriageway from Petaro to Sehwan 128km (N-55).

Package 1A (from Mehran University to Petaro) for 20km and package 1B (from Petaro to Khanote) for 20km was funded by the government of Sindh and is 100 percent complete.

He said that the Package 1C (from Khanote to Manjhand) for 24km was awarded to the lowest bidder, who could not perform at site, resultantly, the NHA terminated the contract due to poor performance.

He said that the contractor filed suit in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the hearing of the case is 21 October 2021.

In the briefing, on construction of Sukkur to Hyderabad Motorway (M-6) section, the committee was informed that the length of the project is 306km and it passes through six districts.

The design and land acquisition proceedings of the project are in progress.

The committee recommended that an interchange may be constructed on Sukkur-Multan Motorway (M-5) to facilitate public and trade in the area.

The Member (North Zone) Peshawar briefed the Committee on Kohat-Gandi road 123km additional carriage way.

He informed that the scope of project is dualisation and improvement of existing Indus Highway (N-55) from Sarai Gambila to Kohat.

He said that the project is consisted of Package-I (from Sarai Gambila to Karak section) spread over 60.85 km and package-III (from Karak to Kohat section) for 66.80km.

He said that over all progress of Package-I is 82 percent, while for package-II is 72 percent, the revised date of completion of both projects is 22 November 2021.

The committee was also informed about the issues of public relating to the contractor of the project and the committee directed the NHA to resolve the issues.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021