Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra) has completed 6,000 projects in areas afffected by earthquake in 2005 Talking to newsmen here on Thursday, Erra spokesman Shazia Haris said that Erra rural housing project short-listed as the world best programme, which proved commitment and dedication of the staff of the authority.
She informed that work on 4,000 projects were still under construction while 2,000 projects, which were not initiated yet, would be delayed due to scarcity of funds. Shazia said Erra hired services of National Engineering Services of Pakistan (NesPak) as consultant and their major job was designing of the projects.
She said that due to the reason Erra asked the NesPak to downsize their human resource to cut down extra budget of the Authority. "The government is committed for rehabilitation and welfare of the people of earthquake affected areas and the Authority has started negotiations with the government for release of more funds."
She informed that Rural Hosing Project had been completed whereas the projects of livelihoods were about to complete that was the reason the Authority had decided to reduce extra manpower. Shazia said that under planning commission's directives it was obligatory to establish a separate 'Project Monitoring Unit' (PMU) for over viewing progress of every project amounting to 10 million or above. She informed that Islamic Development Bank, Asian Development Bank and Saudi Arabia also demanded to establish PMUs and it was not an extra expenditure of the authority.