July 12, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 8, 1429

GUJRAT, July 11: Abandoned sewerage and road projects in Mehmda and Madina Syedan localities in Gujrat suburbs are adding to people’s woes.

The Gujrat district government gave the contract to lay sewerage pipelines to the company of Rana Maqsood, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid backed nazim of the Kunjah union council, in the beginning of 2006. The company was scheduled to complete the sewerage project in one year, but it has not been completed even after the passage of two-and-a-half-years.

The construction of a portion of Madina Syedan Road, which links more than 30 villages to the city, was also approved in 2006 and the stipulated time for this project was one year, but it has also not been completed so far because of the apathy of the works department of the district government.

The district government had allocated Rs15 million for sewerage lines which were to be laid from Kanwa Wala Mor to Madina Syedan Chowk. The three-kilometre road from Kanwa Wala Mor to Madina Syedan Chowk was to be constructed after the completion of the sewerage project. The contractor company has laid sewerage lines and constructed manholes from Kanwa Wala Mor to Madina Syedan Chowk, but it has not connected these sewerage lines and covered the manholes. As a result, work on the road could not be initiated.

It is pertinent to mention that sewerage lines are being laid from Kanwa Wala Mor to Madina Chowk, but the district government has approved construction of the road only up to Madni Mosque, leaving out half of the road from Madni Mosque to Madina Chowk.

As the road and sewerage projects are incomplete even after the passage of two-and-a-half-years, big holes and piles of mud are a headache for the locals. No vehicle can run on the road and the routine life of Mehmda and Madina locality residents has been paralysed. The situation even worsens after the rain. More than 60 manholes are still open from Kanwa Wala Mor to Madina Syedan Chowk. People often fall in these manholes and suffer injuries.

Syed Sadiq Hussain, a 60-year-old retired army official, fell in a 14-foot deep manhole and lost consciousness. A passer-by heard the ring of his cell phone and called people to pull him out of the manhole.

Lines of gas, telephone and water supply have been damaged by unskilled workers. As a result, several people are drinking contaminated water.

The incomplete projects have also affected the business. Malik Munir, a manure dealer, had to leave Madina Road because of the problems created by these incomplete development projects. He said farmers from the nearby villages could not reach his shop because of the dug up road.

Zulfiqar Ahmed, who runs a motorcycle workshop on Madina Road, said that before the beginning of work on the road his monthly income was about Rs20,000 a month, but now he was hardly earning Rs6,000 a month.

As the buildings department is executing the sewerage project, the district officer of the department told Dawn eight months ago that the project would be completed in two months, but it is still incomplete.

District Officer (Buildings) Islamullah Khan, who also has the charge of executive district officer for works, said that 90 per cent of the work on the sewerage project had been completed and that the remaining work would be completed in “the next few days”. He said the buildings department had given grant for rehabilitation of the road to the district department (roads) and now it was up to it (the latter) to complete work on the road.

Roads department associate engineer Mohammad Mansoor, who supervises the Madina Road project, said initial work on the road from Kanwa Wala Mor to Madni Mosque had been completed and now compaction was being done.

However, he could not elaborate how much time the road would take to complete. About the left out portion of the road, he said the department had no funds for its construction. However, he said an estimate of Rs10 million for the construction of the left out portion of the road had been sent to the authorities for approval.