The National Assembly was informed on Monday that that National Highway Authority (NHA) was working on 90 various projects worth Rs 602 billion out of 104, while the government could not arrange funds for remaining 14 projects due to current financial constraints.
Responding to a call attention notice in the House, Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of Communication, Chaudhary Saeed Iqbal said that no project of the NHA was abandoned. However, he added that pace of work had been slow down due to financial constraints and the 50 per cent cut in its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2010-11. He said that currently work on 90 projects out of 104 was being carried out.
He told the House that Rs 37.5 billion was allocated in PSDP for construction of roads and after the cut only Rs 18.5 billion was committed out of which Rs 14.5 billion had been released to the ministry so far. He said that an amount of Rs 2.2 billion was under process in Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR).
Referring to the previous years' floods, he said that the road network had been badly affected across the country and repair and rehabilitation work was being carried out with an estimated cost of Rs 2 billion. He said that PC-1 worth Rs 22.3 billion was prepared for the up-gradation of the road network across the country, adding that China has committed to provide $200 million for roads network and currently the survey is being carried out, which would be completed by May 5 this year.
To a question by Nisar Tanveer regarding delay in completion any project, the parliamentary secretary said that penalties were imposed when projects were delayed by the contractors. Regarding the concerns of the local contractors that the NHA was not awarding projects to them, he said that more than 75 per cent of the NHA projects were being carried out by local contractors, adding that they have the capacity to under take work on major projects.
The call attention notice was moved by PML-N's Muhammad Pervaiz Malik, Nisar Tanveer, Shireen Arshed Khan and others regarding closure of several projects of construction of roads worth billion of rupees due to non-payments of dues to contractors by NHA.