HYDERABAD, Oct 20: Sindh Minister for Local Government, Katchi Abadis and Spatial Development and Chairman HDP Steering Committee Muhammad Hussain Khan has directed the officers concerned to accelerate development work, especially schemes of sewerage, pumping stations, water supply and flyover within the shortest possible time.

He gave these directives while presiding over a meeting to review on-going development work of Hyderabad Development Package (HDP), at Zila Nazim Secretariat on Saturday.

The Sindh minister directed the concerned officers to initiate construction work of new Subzi Mandi Bridge and resolve problems of alignment and encroachments as this scheme will facilitate people to maximum level.

Muhammad Hussain Khan asked to give priority to ongoing development work being carried out in the city and ensure provision of storm water drains along with each newly constructed road. He asked them to maintain the quality of work and said the contractor concerned would be held responsible for any fault or substandard work.

He said it had been decided to make Hyderabad a model district and development schemes of immediate nature should be completed as soon as possible.

Zila Nazim Hyderabad Kanwar Naveed Jamil said work of the HDP had been scheduled to remove the problems of immediate nature on priority basis. He said the district government was supervising the progress and had directed consultants to enhance the capacity of their work force to ensure the work in hand was completed within stipulated time.

Mr Asim from the Usmani Consultants informed participants of the meeting that as many as 29 major development schemes were launched under the HDP at a cost of Rs4 billion out of which nine had been completed and 13 were near completion. He said about 50 per cent progress had been achieved in four schemes, while three were launched recently. He said in addition, out of 14 schemes of short-term drainage, 12 had been completed. He said the work of flyover scheme was to complete by the end of January 2008, while two schemes of 8MGD filter plants would complete within two to four months.

Project Director, HDP Syed Sarfraz Ali Shah said out of current annual allocation of Rs1,723 million, first instalment of Rs430.8 million had been released. He said that his management was experiencing difficulties in getting funds released from the federal government.