KARACHI: The fate of the much-awaited Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme, commonly known as K-IV, still hangs in balance as the federal government has been dragging its feet in its final approval for the past two years, it emerged on Saturday.

Official sources said that the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) had in August 2023 conditionally approved the PC-1 of the project, that also included Rs74 billion K-IV Augmentation Project to be carried out by the Sindh government and funded by World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

They said that the federal government had asked the provincial government to give justification of cost increase of Rs40bn.

The sources said that the provincial government had submitted to the federal government its revised compliance report, giving justification of increase in the cost of the project on Feb 13, 2024, but it was still pending under review at the planning commission for the issuance of authorisation to the provincial government.

Murad to request prime minister for release of Rs30-40bn funds for much-delayed project

They said that the matter would be again placed before the ECNEC for its final approval.

On Saturday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah reviewed the progress of the ongoing K-IV project and set September 2025 as the timeline for the completion of the components being undertaken by the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).

He said that he would discuss the Augmentation Project with the federal government, which had been pending since March 2022.

He directed the Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation to start consultancy of the augmentation works for which he would arrange the funds.

The meeting, held at the CM House, was attended among others by Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, Planning and Development chairman Najam Shah, Local Government Secretary Khalid Hyder Shah, Finance Secretary Fayaz Jatoi, Irrigation Secretary Zarif Khero and KWSC CEO Syed Salahuddin Ahmed.

The CM was told that K-IV mainstream works were being implemented by Wapda and its 100 per cent funding of Rs126bn would be made by the federal government.

The CM was told that there were eight contract packages which were awarded in the construction phase.

He was told that in March 2024, World Bank mission was informed that Rs40.36bn were released against the allocation of Rs52.62bn and the main reason for its possible delay was the unavailability of funds timely.

The chief minister said that he would talk to the federal government to release Rs30-40bn allocated in its PSDP.

The meeting also discussed the Rs40bn KB Feeder Lining project being funded by the federal and the provincial government. It would be executed by the irrigation department.

The CM was told that as per the water balance study conducted by KWSSIP, the water for K-IV could only be extracted by Keenjhar if the KB feeder upper was lined.

The CM said that the World Bank wanted the irrigation department to expedite the completion of the procurement process.

The irrigation secretary told the CM that the KB feeder upper lining project was in the tendering process and the bids were expected to be received in the second week of April.

The CM was told that the trench for laying pipeline PL-I had a length of 65.19 km, of which 63.3 km was completed, 1.49 km was under process and 0.4 km was a disputed area.

The CM directed the chief secretary to get the land disputes redressed.

As far as PL-2 was concerned, the CM was told that it had a length of 47.69 km, out of which 26.79 km had been completed while work on 13.7 km was under process and 7.2 km under litigation. The CM directed his legal team to get the cases cleared and expedite the work.

The CM was told that in the federal public sector development programme, Rs52.6bn was allocated against which Rs45.6bn had been released which has been utilised. Now, Rs30bn to Rs40bn were required to expedite the work.

The chief minister said that he would request the prime minister to release the amount so that the much-delayed project of K-IV could be completed.

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2024