The Senate was informed on Friday that the delay in the construction of extended family suits in Parliament Lodges was mainly because 70 percent land was made available 18 months after the start of the work as it was in possession of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and 111 Brigade - an infantry brigade of the armed forces.
In a written reply to the House, Minister Incharge of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said that the project has been delayed beyond its schedule time.
Citing the major reasons of delay, he said that 70 percent of the site area was made available after 18 months of start of work as the same was under the possession of NAB and 111 Brigade. He said that the site for remaining four blocks for servants quarters (E-1 to E-4 for 400 persons) was not available for dismantling to clear the site for construction works. The site was closed due to processions from 8th August, 2014 till 30th December, 2014.
He said that the site area being in Red Zone there are frequent closures due to security concerns and due to persistent slow progress of work the contractor was not able to complete the work and notices were issued to the contractor and liquidated damages amounting to 10 percent were imposed on the contractor, which is M/s Habib Rafiq (Pvt) Ltd.
He further said that the contractor went to court and obtained a restraining order against the action taken by CDA. About the cost of the project, he said that as per the PC-I, the total cost was Rs 2908.3 million and the current cost of the project is still within the cost of PC-1. He said that the price adjustment is covered in the contract agreement and is being paid as per clause 70.1, wherein, the price decrease/increase of labour, steel, cement are being deducted/included as per work done which is based on the announced statistical bulletin. The same is derived as per the formula mentioned in the approved PEC document, he added.
He further said that a fact finding inquiry was conducted with the ToRs to probe into the issue relating to the reasons of delay in execution of 104 family suits project, to fix responsibility of officers, contractor, and/or consultant whichever is found delinquent.
He said that the inquiry report has been submitted to the House and Library Committee dated 15th February, 2017, the next committee meeting is awaited which was expected to be conducted on 23rd February, 2017.
The Minister said that the overall progress of work is 52 percent and the matters are sub-judicial due to arbitration and litigation and the completion date shall be worked out after the decisions from the courts. He further said that the work on the project was started on May 23, 2011 which constitutes of two residential blocks A& B each having 52 suites, service block C, Mosque block D and five servant quarters blocks E-1 to E-5 for 500 servants. The two residential blocks (104 Additional family suites) contains two basement, ground and four floors on a total covered area 658,005 square feet.
Comments
Comments are closed.