July 04, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 18, 1428

RAWALPINDI, July 3: In a move to impress constituents and make development projects visible ahead of the elections, a federal minister has prematurely engaged an army-run contractor to start work on Leh Expressway without any formal award of the contract, which is supposed to be approved by Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

Principally, a contract of a certain project is awarded when a consultant or an executing agency finalises its feasibility, PC-I, land acquisition and other formalities, but the case of

Leh Expressway is totally different as none of the basic formalities have been completed.

The summary of the project has also not yet reached the office of the Punjab chief minister who is the ultimate authority to approve the contractor for the multi- billion project.

Interestingly, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) has neither approved the project nor has the Punjab government allocated any fund for the project in the provincial budget 2007-08.

The state-run consultant National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) has not yet estimated the total cost of Leh Expressway.

But one can see bulldozers and excavators of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) engaged by the minister in areas like Moti Mahal and Gawalmandi to show people that work is continuing on the expressway.

The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), which is the project’s executing agency, has not yet acquired land for the project which is the first ‘go ahead’ signal for any contractor.

The RDA officials are puzzled over the hasty work of the uninvited contractor on the project and they do not know what to do without the permission of the provincial government.

No official of the city district government Rawalpindi including City Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas has the knowledge as to how and why the contractor, FWO, has been engaged as the project’s summary is supposed to be approved by the chief minister who would also award the contract of the multi-billion project.

Leh Expressway was recently inaugurated by President Gen Pervez Musharraf and suggested that the road project should be named after Railway Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

Now a big signboard has been installed near Moti Mahal which reads, “Shiekh Rashid Expressway”.

Ironically, the contractor has been directed to start work only between Moti Mahal and Gawalmandi and not on the whole area of the roadway. The two spots are in close vicinity of the roads so that progress on the project can be seen by the general public.

Official sources told Dawn that premature involvement of the contractor was nothing more than to achieve political gains ahead of the fast-approaching general elections, adding that a number of incomplete projects in the city were awaiting contractors, but nobody had paid attention to these schemes.

“One must fulfill the basic criteria before undertaking a certain project. I am astonished as on what pattern the contractor is pursuing the road project when none of the authorities have provided the original blueprint of the expressway,” an official source, who is an engineer, told this reporter.