RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has sought technical advice from the Pakistan Army’s Engineering Branch after it failed to pick a revised proposal to mitigate flooding in the watercourse and construct a road beside the nullah for an alternative route between Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

According to an RDA official, advice from the military was sought on the recommendation of the Divisional Development Working Party (DDWP) as there were three proposals for the development of Leh Nullah. These proposals include a Rs54.4 million flood mitigation and road component project; a Rs9.1 billion project to turn the nullah into an eco-friendly, cost-effective resource through a hybrid solution, and a Rs11.5 billion project which envisages the construction of a flood channel from Ammar Chowk and Kattarian Bridge along with the Leh Expressway.

For the past year and a half, the RDA could not consider a proposal despite discussions at different forums and that was why the advice was sought from the army, which was also a stakeholder in this project.

Sharing background about the Leh Expressway project – that included land acquisition – devised in 2007 for Rs20 billion, the cost was supposed to be split between the federal and the Punjab governments, but the project was stalled at the initial stage due to funding problems. It was eventually wrapped up in Nov 2010 by the Punjab government. Subsequently, the project was revamped on the public-private partnership (PPP) mode for Rs100 billion and its scale was extended from the Kattarian Bridge on I.J.P Road to the Lahore High Court building on the G.T. Road.

RDA unable to pick a proposal for the project initially launched in 2007

“A transaction advisory consultant M/s NESPAK-KPMG-Axis Law was hired on December 7, 2019 for the preparation of the project proposal on the PPP mode. However due to the non-viability of the project on the PPP mode, the mode of financing was shifted to the Annual Development Programme and accordingly, the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) authority de-notified the project from the PPP mode January 14, 2023,” he said.

In Dec 2021, the PC-1 for the land acquisition and structure compensation was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council and the administrative approval was issued on Jan 19, 2022.

Only a year later, the Punjab government decided that the cost of the project required a large amount of funds and it was decided in March 2023 that the RDA would only take up the sewerage component of the project and drop the Expressway which required hefty funds for the acquisition of land.

During the meetings attended by all stakeholders, including the Cantt administrations and the Engineer-in-Chief Branch of the army, the need for a feasibility study was stressed for optimal utilisation of resources and capital cost. Subsequently, the RDA prepared the PC-II amounting to Rs48.920 million, which was approved in the Punjab Development Working Party meeting on January 19, 2024.

The administrative approval was issued in May 2024 by the Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department. Meanwhile, a note to the Planning and Development Board chairman was also initiated on March 22, 2024, with the request to hire a consultancy under direct contracting with the government-run agencies. The chairman declined the proposal and said that the consultant should be hired through competitive bidding.

Furthermore, a series of meetings were held in April 2024 at the commissioner’s office wherein it was decided that instead of taking up only a single component in the PC-II, flood mitigation and road components should also be made part of PC-II. The road under this proposal is from Moti Mahal to Kattarian Bridge and also includes a sewage treatment plant.

Accordingly, the RDA prepared additional TORs along with the revised PC-II amounting to Rs54.420 million and submitted it to the Housing, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering Department where it was still under consideration.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2024