KOHAT: The three-year project of dualisation of Kohat-Hangu highway worth Rs850 million may be delayed as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority (KPHA) is unable to pay Rs450 million as a cost of shifting of lines and poles of the Pesco and PTCL, according to sources.

They said that the addition of Rs450 million would escalate the actual cost of the project to Rs1.3 billion which had caused a tussle between these departments and the KPHA.

They said that the cost escalation might create shortage of funds and delay the project for over a year.

The sources said that the work on the 24 kilometres long Kohat-Hangu portion was to start next month, but the claims of the Pesco, forest department, PTCL and private land owners had raised the cost of the project by Rs450 million. The KPHA had requested these departments to review their demands so that work could be started and the project completed within the stipulated time.

In this regard, commissioner Kohat division Musarrat Hussain chaired a meeting of officials from the administrative departments of Hangu at his office on Tuesday and asked them to resolve the issue immediately so that work on the project could be started without any delay.

It was attended by superintending engineer irrigation, Kohat division, Amjid Khan; divisional monitoring officer, Aftab Ahmed; executive engineer communication and works, Riaz Khan; and heads of other departments.

The project in-charge, Engineer Shakir of KPHA, told Dawn that both the Pesco and the PTCL had given them estimated demand of over Rs400 million for shifting the poles and underground lines. He described the demand as irrational.

The rest of Rs50 million would be paid to the forest department, for graveyards and private acquisition.

He said that the Hangu police training college was situated at a narrow sharp turn where road could not be doubled due to the extended boundary wall.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2016