ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) has approved three projects worth over Rs1 billion for the twin cities of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, which includes second phase of the Khanpur Water Supply project.
The Ecnec, which met here on Thursday, approved the revised PC-I of the Prime Minister House and the National Police Academy (NPA), being executed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) at a cost of Rs542 million.
The meeting was presided over by Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and attended by Commerce Minister Razzaq Dawood, Education Minister Zubaida Jalal, senior officials of the CDA and the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB), and functionaries of different ministries and departments.
The project of the Prime Minister House has been completed while the NPA is in progress.
The meeting deferred the approval of the D-12 sector’s development as it could not be discussed due to the shortage of time. It is expected that the project will be approved in the next meeting of the committee which is likely to be held within a month, a source told Dawn.
The revised expenditure of the NPA project is Rs362.272 million and Rs180.916 million will be spent on the construction of the Prime Minister House.
Work on the PM House project was started on August 10, 1989.
The PC-I of the project was first approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) at an estimated cost of Rs56.131 million on June 1, 1989.
On December 17, 1990, a revised PC-I amounting to Rs143.828 million was submitted. Subsequently, the CDA was again asked to execute more works, and thus the PC-I was further revised to Rs162.278 million on April 14, 1993. However, the project remained under discussion between the CDA and the Cabinet Division and finally it was decided that it should be revised on the basis of the actual completion cost. Thus, the PC-I was revised to Rs180.916 million.
The Ecnec considered the revised PC-I of Rs180.912 million on December 17, 1996, but, did not approve it rather an inquiry report was called on account of violation of financial discipline.
The inquiry was conducted by the Chief Executive Inquiry Commission in which no element of corruption by any officer was proved.
The commission advised the Planning and Development Division for obtaining ex-post facto approval of Ecnec.
The PC-I of the National Police Academy (NPA) said the academy was established in 1978 and its administrative wing was located at Soan Camp. The academy was working without any residential accommodation.
In view of imperative needs of training for police personnel, the prime minister approved the establishment of permanent NPA in the Capital. The CDA allotted a land of 30 acres at a cost of Rs21.926 million to the academy.
The PC-I of the project costing Rs154.026 million was approved by Ecnec in 1994. The revised PC-I with enhanced scope of work amounting to Rs362.272 million was approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on January 4, 2002 and recommended to Ecnec for approval.
The CDA has so far received an amount of Rs111.691 million for the project and a sum of Rs251 million is still required.
KHANPUR WATER PROJECT: The Ecnec also approved the second phase of the Khanpur Dam Water Supply Project (KWSP) to be executed by the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board at a cost of about Rs510 million.
Of the total amount Rs340 million will be provided by the federal government and Rs170 million will have to be borne by the cantonment board.
The RCB requested the federal government to provide the same amount in shape of soft loans as it was facing financial crunch, an official of the RCB told Dawn.
The federal finance minister, in response, asked the RCB officials to approach the planning division in this regard.
The second phase of the project will be launched shortly after the approved amount is released. After the completion of the project 14.5 million gallons of water per day will be supplied to the 500,000 residents of the cantonment area, the official said.
The areas which will benefit include Misrial Road, Afshan Colony, PIA Colony, Ilyas Colony, Allama Iqbal Colony, Dhoke Chaudhrian, Kamalabad, Tahli Mori, Dheri Hassanabad, Dhoke Syedan, Jhawara, Lalazar and other surrounding areas.
At present, the RCB receives only about 12 MGD of water which includes five MGD from Khanpur Dam, four MGD from Rawal Lake and three MGD from about 76 tubewells.
There is a shortage of about 20 to 25MGD water which will end after supply from the second phase of the Khanpur Dam starts, the official said.
