RAWALPINDI, June 9: The land acquisition costs of the Leh Nullah expansion project will be reduced by Rs170 million if the revised plan is approved, sources told Dawn.

The committee, which has been constituted under the chairmanship of an army official to look into the feasibility of the revised plan, has submitted its report to the Punjab government for approval.

The sources said the alteration was made in the original plan to save money by acquiring cheap residential land in Ganjmandi instead of the costly commercial areas on City-Saddar Road.

The commercial lands on City-Saddar Road are about 25 per cent more expensive than the residential lands on the other side, they said. If the plan is approved, about Rs170 million would be saved from the funds allocated for compensating the Nullah Leh affected persons.

On the other hand, the residents of Seerat Ganj and Shaheenpura have protested against the new plan. They said under the revised plan, 150 families would be affected as they would fall in the area demarcated for the expansion project.

Earlier, they were outside the line of demarcation drawn for the project.

The residents have termed it fraud on the part of the project-executing officials.

They alleged that there had been an underhand deal between shopkeepers of City-Saddar Road and the officials concerned of the scheme. They said until they were not paid double the compensation, they would not let the revised plan be implemented.

There will be protests and even self-immolation cases if the calls of these people are ignored, said Manzoor, a resident of the area.

The project-executing director, Brig Habibur Rehman, denied that there had been an underhand deal.

“The project management unit is only executing the scheme.

The land-acquisition amount and its payment to the affected persons is the job of the executive district officer,” he added.

He said the reason for the revision was to save money by acquiring cheap residential lands.

He said the total cost of land-acquisition had been estimated at Rs520 million out of which the government had so far released only Rs200 million to the EDO revenue. He requested the government to release the remaining amount as early as possible so that the land was acquired and work started on it.

He said the project, which was supposed to be completed by September this year, might be delayed to March-April next year due to the problems being faced in land-acquisition and also because of the delay in payment of compensation to the affected persons.