LAHORE, Feb 8: The Water and Power Development Authority has warned the Italian contractors of the Ghazi Brotha Hydro-electric Power Project to either return by mid-February or face legal action for skirting its contractual obligations, Dawn learnt here on Friday.

The Italian contractor company, Impregilo, had left the project in October last without any authorisation from the engineer. The act of the firm is costing the government of Pakistan around one million dollars per day and the total loss has already touched the figure of $100 million.

Now the Wapda authorities are in the process of forming a Task Force to bypass procedural hiccups in case Impregilo fails to return by Feb 14. The authority feels the rest of the work could still be completed in time if all available alternative local resources are mobilised without any further delay. The Task Force can quickly take decision and sublet parts of the project in order to speed up the work.

The Wapda authorities have already evaluated the leftover work of the project and work on detailed drawings resumed. The Pakistani partners of the Impregilo have also reportedly asked the Italian firm to return to work and save them huge financial loss that Wapda’s legal action could cost them.

The lending agencies have also reportedly told the Italians to return because there was no security problem at present.

The government of Pakistan and Wapda authorities had maintained that the European governments had declared the NWFP and Balochistan security risk zones. But the Ghazi Brotha project is situated in Punjab that never fell in security risk bracket. The Italians, already looking for excuses to leave, took refuge behind the clause and ran away.