August 25, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-us-Sani 26

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RAWALPINDI, Aug 24: The Punjab government has expressed its serious reservations about spending on the construction of the Rawal Road that is almost four times higher than the one estimated in the beginning, official sources told Dawn here on Sunday.

“In the beginning, the authorities concerned had estimated Rs80 million for the project. However, the final cost of the project rose up to Rs300 million that was almost 350 per cent higher than the cost estimated earlier,” they said.

National Logistics Cell (NLC) and Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) had completed the project about two years ago under the supervision of the then corps commander Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani.

The project had been designed by Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) and it was part of the Pindi Development Scheme initiated during the government of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in 1996 with an amount of Rs6,000 million. Construction of Kuri Road (then Benazir Avenue), Murree Road and Sixth Road was also part of the project.

In order to investigate the matter, sources said, the chairman of the chief minister’s inspection team, Tariq Sadaat, on Saturday visited the site along with some officials of the RDA including the director metropolitan and traffic engineering, Makeen Shahbaz.

Mr Sadaat, sources said, inspected Rawal Road right from airport to Murree Road. He expressed reservations about the utilisation of such a big amount and asked the officials to explain to him the logic behind the huge gap between the early estimate and the final cost of the project.

The sources said, the Rawalpindi Development Authority officials also briefed Mr Sadaat on the reasons behind the huge spending. “However, it is yet to be determined whether they (RDA officials) had convinced him,” the sources said, adding, “It is not yet clear what the provincial government is planing to deal with the issue in the coming days”.

“However, differences in the viewpoints of both the RDA and the provincial government on the issue are pretty much clear and understandable,” they said.

The sources said the Rawalpindi Development Authority officials also told Mr Sadaat that initially Rawal Road had been designed as a single carriageway and the cost was estimated according to that ratio. However, later on it was re-designed and dualised that required purchase of a big chunk of land by compensating the owners at market rates. This also led to an increase in the quantity of the material. As a result, the project could not be accomplished with the cost estimated earlier, the officials informed the chairman.