ISAMABAD, Oct 27: About 50 road projects being completed by the National Highway Authority are in jeopardy owing to a delay in release of funds amounting to Rs6.2 billion.

The amount is part of the first tranche of Rs8 billion which was expected to be paid between July and September. However, only Rs1.8 billion has been released so far.

The total budgetary allocation for 2008-09 is about Rs26.4 billion which is to be released in four instalments.

Sources said the delay in the release of funds would badly affect about 50 road projects on which 50 to 60 per cent work has been completed. Contractors are disappointed because they have not been paid for the past four months.

The sources said the contractors, however, continued their work on the request of the authority.

An NHA official told Dawn that the authority in its executive board’s meeting a few days ago had raised the issue with officials of the finance ministry informing them that any further delay could adversely affect the projects.

The officials of the finance ministry assured the NHA that the amount would be released, but so far no funds have been released. The NHA has also made a written request to the finance ministry for funds.

The NHA is working on about 130 projects including motorways, highways, roads, bridges, interchanges and link routes.

The delay in carrying out these projects, caused by the release of funds, can help increase the cost as prices of construction material are going up constantly.

The projects which are likely to be affected include the Quetta-Taftan Highway, Quetta-Khuzdar-Karachi Highway, Quetta-Zhob Highway, Lowari Tunnel, Peshawar-Torkham Road and Faisalabad-Multan section of Motorway.

NHA chairman Chaudhry Altaf said that complaints had been received from contractors about delay in payment of bills. But, he expressed the hope, meetings have been held with the officials of the finance ministry and the issue would be resolved.