January 21, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 01, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, Jan 20: The pace of development work in the city is not matching the quantity of funds received by the authorities concerned under the multi-billion Rawalpindi Environment Improvement Project (REIP).

Official sources told Dawn on Saturday that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the provincial government had released Rs320.3 million to the Project Management Unit (PMU) of the REIP working in the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa).

They said the ADB had given $3 million to the PMU, while the Punjab government had released Rs133 million to Wasa under the Annual Development Programme (ADP). An additional Rs10 million was also received by the PMU.

The PMU would get Rs5.14 billion for completing all segments of the project. However, it has so far not installed 26 tubewells worth Rs30.9 million.

Similarly, the PMU has deposited Rs240 million with the revenue department for acquisition of land at Adiala, where a sewerage treatment plant would be installed. This is the biggest component of the project.

The PMU has also purchased 40 garbage containers with a single receptacle having a cost of Rs100,000, but the amount has not yet been paid to the contractor as the containers have been rejected by the solid waste management due to technical flaws in their design.

Sources said the executive district officer (EDO) solid waste, Iftikhar Shalwani and district officer Dr Mazhar Azeem had informed the PMU that the size of the containers was very small and could not collect garbage properly.

Under the REIP, the entire sewerage network in the city was to be replaced in order to check mixing of sewage with drinking water. But so far the authorities concerned have not launched the project.