03 November 2004	Wednesday	19 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Nov 2: The US$ 250 million Bagh Ibn-i-Qasim Project in Clifton seems to be heading towards failure owing to scores of reasons.

Sources said that the project, planned to provide recreational facilities to Karachiites, has hit snags due to hurdles created by the city government and lack of planning to pursue mega projects.

The project was launched about one-and-a-half-year back by the city government and it invited potential investors to carry out the project on built, operate and transfer (BOT) basis.

Initially, three companies had expressed their interest in the project. But later two firms did not respond and did not submit bid documents.

The only UK-based company, Deighton International, submitted bid documents and was to deposit bid bond worth Rs3 million with the city government in May this year. However, the firm did not deposit the security bond for the last four to five months.

Sources said that the city government is insisting that the firm should deposit the bid bond, whereas the firm was reluctant to do so, arguing that they would have to spend millions of dollars in the project and millions of rupees would be spent on the first installation of machinery and to meet the other pre-requisites of the project.

Sources said that the vested interest is obstructing the project whereas the condition of bid bond is not a necessity in a BOT project.

The city government is yet to formulate an investment policy. It has also been learnt that representatives of the firm have expressed their reservations over precarious law and order situation in the city.

"The city government will be at the receiving end if the project did not make any headway as according to a rough estimate, over Rs400 million revenue would be generated every year, sources said.

It is worth mentioning that out of over 120 acres specified for the purpose, only 70 is available and the rest (50 acres) is in litigation or has been encroached.

EDO Enterprises, dealing with the project, said there were some problems which were a hurdles. "No doubt it is a promising project and needs due attention of the authorities concerned." The city government, he said, is making efforts to persuade the company to initiate the project as the earliest. He said that maximum concessions be extended to the firm.-PPI