The cost of extension of Right Bank Outfall Drain (RBOD-II) project has been escalated from Rs 29.22 billion to Rs 61.985 billion due to mismanagement.

According to documents available with this correspondent, the RBOD-II is a mega drainage project in Sindh province, originally being funded mainly by the federal government with the length of 273 km. The main objective of the project is to protect Manchar Lake and River Indus from pollution.

The project (RBOD-II) was redesigned for discharge capacity of 3,525 cusecs for a revised PC-I cost of Rs 29.22 billion but in the second revised PC-I, the cost of the project escalated to Rs 61.985 billion with Rs 7 billion share of Sindh government and it was planned to be completed by November 2019 but it could not be completed so far.

The federal government allocated Rs 1.5 billion and Sindh government allocated Rs 2 billion for this project for financial year 2019-20. The overall physical progress is 73 percent. The releases of RBOD-II Project up to June 2019 are Rs 43.232 billion and the expenditure on the project up to June 2019 is Rs 38.67 billion.

According to the documents which explain the reasons for delay in the project, the fully functional project support and monitoring team is required for the project. The project is under commander Engineers 5 Corps to resolve the issues of land acquisition, execution matters, issues regarding Railway and National Highway Authority (NHA), financing from federal government and others related issues with the project. About 50 km drain is not yet executed due to reasons; (i) non-posting and non-cooperation of land acquisition officers, (ii) law and order situation, (iii) award was passed by the land acquisition officers at very high rates and, (iv) court cases/litigation. The documents described that other reasons in delay of the project are that work on a railway bridge (211-B) at Kotri Yard is in progress and its completion is likely to take more than 2 years.

The FWO is major contractor of the project but it has demobilized from the sites and it seems that FWO is not interested to restart and complete the work. The FWO is not working itself but has sublet the works to civilian contractors. Therefore it is considered necessary that either FWO should mobilize in full swing and complete the works or it should be removed from RBOD-II Project so that alternate arrangements are made to complete the project.

According to documents about way forward of the project, special efforts are required by the Sindh government and Supreme Court to resolve land acquisition issues and court cases. The chief secretary Sindh may be requested to appoint an independent land acquisition officer exclusively for RBOD-II project. The third party evaluation and comprehensive review through a reputed consultant is required and for that, experts of WAPDA authorities are on board and they will start the work.