RAHIM YAR KHAN: The construction of Cadet College Khanpur has not been completed despite the passage of over 10 years since its announcement.

On Nov 21, 2008, the then premier Yousuf Raza Gilani had announced the Cholistan Cadet College for Khanpur tehsil and allocated Rs500 million for it during a meeting with the then PPP members of provincial and national assembly belonging from the district. On the request of local lawmakers, its name was changed a year later to Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Cadet College, however in 2014 the Shahbaz Sharif government in Punjab renamed it to Cadet College Khanpur.

Construction of the project started in late 2016 after the administrative approval of Rs476m on July 25, 2016. A piece of 250 acres had been selected at Chak 7-P in Mauza Wahi Hazrat, some six kilometres from Khanpur city. But this land was not transferred from the auqaf department to the Board of Revenue because it was being used for agricultural purposes and laid in the jurisdiction of the Cholistan Development Authority, Bahawalpur.

The capital cost of the project was estimated to be Rs1.28bn, while the departments of planning and development and buildings were looking after its construction. Out of the Rs476m approved in 2016, Rs100m were released that year and Rs231m the next fiscal year.

A contractor said that they had suspended construction at the start of 2018 due to lack of funds, as only one of the promised instalments had been paid. He said he had not received a single penny since the new government took over. He wanted to continue the construction, but could not due to lack of funds.

According to buildings department officials, the college had planned to cater to over 1,900 students and almost 280 academic and administrative staff members.

A department official told this correspondent that under the funds allocated to the project in the Annual Development Programme 2018-19, 17 buildings of various departments, including academic block, admin block, hostels, students facilitation centre, faculty hostel and staff residences, had been constructed and their finishing was under way. He said that if the remaining Rs144.8m from the Rs476m were released, the project could be completed in June and handed over to the education department.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2019