ISLAMABAD: The estimated cost of the proposed sewage treatment plants (STPs) project for Rawal Dam’s catchment area has seen an increase of around two billion rupees.

Earlier, the estimated cost of the project was around Rs4 billion which in a revised PC-I has been estimated at Rs6 billion. A few days ago, the CDA prepared the revised PC-I, which is going to be submitted to the Ministry of Interior for onward submission to Planning Commission.

The cost was increased due to the high inflation and increase in the value of the dollar against the rupee. Officials said the old PC-I had been prepared when the value of the rupee was Rs138 per dollar. Similarly, they said construction material prices also saw a significant increase during the last one year.

Under the project, the CDA is supposed to install three STPs in the dam’s catchment area to stop the flow of contaminated water into the reservoir.

CDA prepares revised PC-I for submission to Planning Commission

Plants are to be built in lower Shahdara, Bari Imam and near Banigala. In the absence of these plants, untreated sewage from unplanned localities in the catchment area flowed into Rawal Dam.

Last year, the CDA called bids, which were opened in July the same year, but the contract could not be awarded within the stipulated time. As a result, the bid’s validity time expired and now the civic agency is going to get approval of the revised PC-I from the Planning Commission before calling bids.

According to CDA officials, the PC-I was prepared on the direction of the Planning Commission as an engineering procurement and construction (EPC) mode project which meant that its design and engineering would be handled by an EPC contractor.

They said after awarding the tender last year, the civic body was supposed to get the revised PC-I’s approval from the Planning Commission. However, an objection was raised by the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project had not been carried out. In the meantime, the bid’s validity period expired.

In its letter earlier this year, the CDA had informed the Planning Commission that if the project was carried out through the EPC mode, the EIA would not be conducted. It said under the EPC mode, the contractor was supposed to prepare the project’s design and the EIA could not be carried out without it.

Sources said in the revised PC-I, the CDA clearly mentioned that since the project was of the EPC mode, after a competitive process whoever wins the contract, within three months they would get the EIA done as they will first complete the detailed designing of the project.

“The contractor will do detailed designing and based on design he will go for EIA,” said an official of CDA, adding that soon after getting the revised PC-I the CDA will call tenders for awarding the contract. It is, in fact, an environment mitigation project. After being started, the project would have to be completed in 14 months for treating 9.6 million gallons of untreated water daily.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2022