KARACHI, Nov 7: Work on a joint venture of the federal and provincial governments to provide emergency services to the victims of accidents and calamities in the metropolis has been slowed down once again since the authorities are unsure about the release of promised funds in view of the prevailing economic crisis, it has been reliably learnt.

Work on the project of accident emergency and auxiliary services complex, which has been named after the assassinated chairperson of the ruling party, was to kick off in August 2008 after it hit snags twice during the last two and a half years.

Sources in the Civil Hospital Karachi, where the complex was to be built, said that things did not go in the right direction as first of all the shifting of neurosurgery and ophthalmology wards from the proposed construction site of the trauma centre project was delayed. Then a couple of interlinked developments could not take place according to the execution plan mainly because the exclusive electricity connections for running the two departments on the Sindh Services Hospital premises could not be provided on time.

The federal government had announced the project, first of its kind in the province, about more than three years ago when it was estimated that the civil and electrical works as well as the installations of modern medial equipment would cost around Rs1.4 billion. The project details and the proposed expenditures were duly approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec). It was agreed that the federal and the provincial governments would equally bear the project’s cost.

So far, the federal government has released over Rs100 million while the Sindh government released Rs50 million till the last financial year for the project. Some of the allocations had already been spent on the renovation and construction of additional floors at the services hospital to accommodate the two departments shifted from the proposed site, making way for the construction of the complex, a source said.

However, the hike in prices of construction material, labour charges and other costs had caused people associated with the project’s planning and execution to reevaluate the project’s overall cost. A revised project paper was being submitted to the Sindh government and the federal government for approval.

Since the cost is likely to increase by 60 per cent the whole exercise of documentation and approvals from the federal government, including that of the Ecnec, has to be completed again. Surely, this would be a lengthy process but work on the project might start in the third quarter of the current financial year as the Sindh government was reportedly keen on completing the project at the earliest.

The sources said that the bids already received were still valid and if the approvals were accorded within a couple of months there would be no need to re-float the tenders.

However, some of the doctors involved in administration of the hospital observed that only a positive attitude of the entire administrative machinery and the project directors could bring the project back on the track. “The government is already facing the worst financial crisis and is compelled to curtail expenditures and reshape the priorities. And as such there is a fifty-fifty situation in the case of the trauma centre project,” a doctor said, estimating its new cost to be Rs2.4 billion.

The proposed project, planned to be an earthquake-proof 14-storey building with modern equipment, will be built on a 7,000 square-yard plot. The complex is aimed at providing treatment facilities to about 110,000 emergency patients every year, while about 1,500 patients will be offered surgical intensive care and about 2,500 patients will be extended medical intensive care facilities annually.

When contacted, Medical Superintendent of the CHK Dr Saeed Kureshi said that the issue of exclusive connection for power supply had been sorted out and the eye and neurosurgery departments would be shifted soon.

In reply to a question, he said a revised PC-1 was being prepared for the authorities concerned due to extension in the scope of the trauma project and escalation of prices of cement, steel and other materials.