KARACHI: People of the city will have to wait for an unspecified period to get smooth supply of potable water as the Sindh Assembly was informed on Tuesday that the Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme, also known as K-IV project, may not be completed by June this year due to financial and technical snags.

Besides, the provincial lawmakers were also informed that the project, which was to be completed by June last year, would cost over Rs70 billion upon its completion against its initial cost of Rs25.55bn.

While furnishing statement and answering questions during the Question Hour of the provincial assembly, Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said the project had been considerably delayed “due to major issues in planning and execution stages”.

He recalled that the initial cost of the project was Rs25.551bn to be shared by the federal and provincial governments on a 50-50 basis.

However, later the project was awarded to the Frontier Works Organisation for Rs28.186bn and it was bifurcated into Packages A and B.

The minister said that the original completion date of Package A was June 2018, while completion date of Package B was June 2019.

He said that the project was delayed mainly due to route realignments and subsequent litigation on the issue.

Besides, the minister said, frequent changes were made in the design and there were several missing essential components which were not included in the original PC-1 of the project such as roads, pedestrian bridges and staff colonies.

He said that essential supplementary components such as augmentation project and power supply projects were missing in the original project.

The minister informed the house that it was inefficiency probably on the part of the project’s consultant that no funds were allocated for augmentation project and power supply project.

“The chief minister has already ordered an inquiry in this connection,” he added.

Responding to a supplementary question, Mr Ghani said that the province had so far contributed funds in the project more than its 50pc share and urged the federal government to release funds of its share as soon as possible.

He justified the delay in progress and said that it was due to missing of several essential components in the PC-I which was not made in the Pakistan Peoples Party tenure.

“The provincial government is committed [to] K-IV as it already has spent Rs19.1bn on the project. We would complete this project even if the Centre does not fulfil its commitment and give its 50pc share.”

Greater Karachi Sewerage
Plan to complete in 2020

Replying to another question, the minister said that a project of Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan, known as S-III, would get completed by August 2020 against its earlier date of completion by June 2018.

“Competent forum, Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) has approved the revised PC-I of S-III with a cost of more than Rs36,117 million with federal share capped to Rs3,991m which may increase upon the project process,“ he said.

That first stage of S-III was inaugurated under which 77 MGD sewage was treated before being disposed of into the sea.

Replying to another question, the minister said as many as 13 major hospitals were being run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. They are: Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases, Sobhraj Maternity Hospital, Sarfaraz Rafique Shaheed Hospital, Leprosy Hospital, Landhi Medical Complex, Spencer Eye Hospital, Gizri Maternity Hospital, Gazdarabad General Hospital, Landhi Cardiac Emergency Centre, Shah Faisal Colony Cardiac Emergency Centre, Homeopathic Hospital Nazimabad and Primary Health Care Centre Lyari.

He further submitted that in response to the city mayor’s request, the provincial government released an amount of Rs177m as special grant-in-aid for the purchase of medicines and allied items for these hospitals.

The minister said that the KMC had purchased medicines and allied items for its hospitals through tenders as per SPPRA Rules and they were distributed among all hospitals as per their respective requirements.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019