The government is planning to construct a new residence for Chairman Senate in Minister's enclave at an estimated cost of Rs 107 million. This was revealed exclusively to Business Recorder. According to sources in Cabinet division, the new residence will have imported fittings.
The secretary Cabinet Division has approved the PC-1 of the new residence for chairman senate to be considered by Central Development Working Party (CDWP) of planning commission in next meeting scheduled after the upcoming budget. The member engineering Capital Development Authority (CDA) Tahir Shamshad has recommended PC-1 for approval. In the PC it has been proposed to complete project within one year so that the current chairman senate could enjoy the facilities of a new home.
The money will be spent in four quarters, with Rs 25 million released in each quarter during the first nine months and a tranche of Rs 32 million to be released in the last quarter of the year. The project director will enjoy facility of two vehicles including one 1000 cc car and 1000 cc jeep. The project director will get fuel charges amounting to Rs 0.5 million in a year.
According to PC-1, the total area of residential building for chairman senate will be 3000 square yards (6 kanals) that will also have an Olympic sized swimming pool on an area of 1000 square feet. A total of Rs 2 million is to be spent on building the swimming pool. The building will be seismic proof. According to sources, the whole building will have marble flooring with attractive study room for the chairman senate. The PC-1 recommended construction of tiled bath rooms with imported fittings. The building will have central heating system.
Considering that load shedding is a major issue in the country Senate Chairman would be happy to learn that his new house would have a standby 300 kilowatt electronic power generator that would cost Rs 4.50 million. So much for Raja Pervez Ashraf's promise to the nation that load shedding would end by December 2009! The story does not end with construction of the residence as the national kitty will bear the cost of Rs 3.6 million rupees on operating and maintenance of senate chairman residence every year.