The Ministry of Communications fears delay and cost escalation in road projects, including roads linked with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework, owing to further cuts in funds as well as short releases under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
The estimated through forward of road projects carried by the National Highway Authority (NHA) is around Rs 1.5 trillion and massive escalation is feared if the government further delays issuance of fund or cuts fund, revealed senior officials while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Communications which met here with Senator Hidayat Ullah in the chair on Wednesday.
"During the last quarter of last fiscal year as well as following two months, no money was released under the PSDP to the NHA, while only Rs 8 billion were released in the following two months against the demand of Rs 25 billion," said Chairman NHA Jawwad Rafique Malik, adding that during the latest quarter (current fiscal year), the government released over Rs 25 billion against the demand of Rs 41 billion.
The chairman NHA's stance was endorsed by Secretary Communications Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, saying that any further cut or delay in releases would delay projects, besides cost escalation. The committee expressed serious concern over the delay, saying that pace of work is very slow or next to no work. The NHA chairman admitted the slow pace of work, saying that due to short or no-releases, pace of work is slow; however, he expected to overcome it with fund releases.
The officials and the parliamentarians while observing the situation recommended raising the matter at high level and asked the secretary finance and secretary planning to brief the committee in the next meeting.
The NHA chairman informed the committee that against the revised PSDP allocation of Rs 112.99 billion under the head of local component, the NHA utilised Rs 28.73 billion by December 2018. However, against the Rs 72.2 billion foreign component, the NHA utilised Rs 93.8 billion, he added.
He further said that China is currently financing two projects under the CPEC including Havelian-Thakot and Multan-Sukkur which would be completed well on time i.e. by February 2020 and August 2019 respectively.
He further said that the NHA is planning to take Sukkur-Haiderabad, a part of the CPEC, on built-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. Furthermore, the next two projects which are on the top of priority list to be included in the CPEC are Yarik-DI Khan-Zhob and Khuzdar-Basima.
The committee also discussed the point of public importance regarding payment to the land owner whose land was acquired for the construction of road from Kaghan to Babusar Top, raised by Senator Lieutenant General Salahuddin Tirmizi (retd) in the Senate on 18.12.2018.
Tirmizi informed the committee that the Section 4 has been imposed in the area for the last 18 years, but land owners are not being paid compensation.
The NHA informed that land acquisition collector CPEC (Havelian-Thakot Section) Abbottabad has been assigned additional charge of the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkad Road and the case of the land acquisition is in process which is likely to be completed shortly.
The proceedings got delayed due to frequent posting/transfers of land acquisition collectors and an amount of Rs 164 million has already been transferred to the respective district treasury.
The project for widening of Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhed (MNJ) Road was carried out by the NHA. Initially, land measuring 7,978 kanals & 12 mar1as was notified under the Section-4 of Land Acquisition Act (LAA)-1894. However, a corrigendum notification was issued as per actual requirement of land measuring 1,698 kanals.
The then LAC (NAs) has already initiated a case for funds to conclude land acquisition proceedings and an amount of Rs 164 million has been transferred to the respective district treasury. The proceedings got delayed due to posting/ transfer of the LAC.
Recently, LAC (CPEC-Havelian-Thakot Section) Abbottabad has been assigned additional charge and he has again processed the case for completion of land acquisition and disbursement of compensation, which is likely to be completed shortly.
The committee constituted a sub-committee and directed it to report within one month to resolve the matter, besides directing the NHA chairman to form a fact-finding committee and conduct an inquiry to reach the officials involved in the matter.