GUJRAT, Oct 26: Construction work on the project to lay sewerage pipeline on Madina Syedan Road which started one-and-a-half year ago is incomplete yet and also stalled for the past three months leaving residents of nearby urban and rural localities to suffer acute hardships.

The project was to be completed within one year after it was kicked off early 2006, but the contractor has abandoned the work in August, 2007, without completing it, leaving this otherwise busy road in a shambles and adding to the citizens’ woes.

Officials say the project is being delayed because of delays in the construction of an identical project on Bhimbar Road to which the sewerage pipeline of Madina Syedan Road will be later connected.

According to sources, the Bhimbar Road project was likely to be completed in a couple of months.

The Works and Services Department had initiated Madina Syedan Road project along with other similar projects costing Rs700 million to streamline the sewerage flow in the city and to connect this area’s sewer with the newly-laid sewerage pipeline of Kutchery Chowk to a disposal pump near Bolay locality.

The project was designed to remove choking of drain water of rural localities, including Madina Syedan, Awan Sharif and Mehmda, and urban areas, including New Marghzar Colony and localities in the vicinity of the shrine of Saint Karam Elahi, alias Kanwanwali Sarkar, at Jail Chowk. Earlier, drain water of rural and urban areas on Madina Syedan Road used to choke the main drain and sewerage line of the city at this point.

Sources said besides the Buildings Department, some other agencies including the Public Health Engineering and Nespak had been supervising the project with their technical support to the executing agency.

According to the official plan, the sewerage line had to be laid on some three-kilometre area from Kanwanwala Morr to the end of Madina Syedan village at the cost of Rs15 million. However, sources in the Buildings Department say only 50 per cent work has been completed as yet. The excavation and laying pipelines in entire Madina Syedan locality is yet to be carried out.

On the other hand, officials say over 80 per cent of the project is completed and the remaining 20 per cent is deliberately abandoned to wait for the completion of Bhimbar Road project with which this sewer will be linked subsequently.

Syed Ali Haider, a student of Zamindara College and a resident of Madina Syedan village, told this scribe that people of the area had been facing acute hardship in travelling to and from the city and over two dozen localities as no public transport was plying on this road because of the excavation. He said they had to take alternate routes, which was inconveniencing them a lot. These routes are said to be unsafe and insecure particularly after sunset because of the worsening law and order situation.

Syed Aleem Imtiaz Jangi, another resident of Madina Syedan Road, criticised the indifference of the officials concerned in expediting the execution of the project, leaving thousands of people of the area languishing for the past several months. He demanded early completion of the project.

As work on the project has been halted for the last couple of months, unplugged manholes and ditches excavated to lay pipelines are inconveniencing especially to elderly people and children who often fall their prey and sustain injuries.

The contracts to lay the sewerage pipelines on Madina Syedan Road and Bhimbar Road were given to contractor-turned-politician Rana Maqsood, happened to be a PML-backed nazim of Kunjah union council. Mr Maqsood had also completed some other sewerage projects of the city, including the one on Jail Chowk to Kutchery Chowk.

When contacted, Haji Mohammad Ashraf, sub-divisional officer of the Buildings Department, said work on Madina Syedan-Awan Sharif Road sewerage project was suspended after the start of Bhimbar Road project, as both the projects were interlinked and the contractor was also the same.

Mr Ashraf, however, said labourers had started work on the Bhimbar Road project two days ago after Eid holidays and assured that the suspended work on Madina Syedan Road project would also start in the next couple of days.

He said he was unable to explain the delays in the completion of the project as he took over the charge just a few months ago after his predecessor, Sheikh Saleem, who had been supervising the project, was promoted and transferred.

Talking to Dawn, Buildings District Officer Mirza Tariq said 80 per cent of the work on this project had been completed.

About the causes of delays, he said the department had sent the case of revised estimate of the project to the chief engineer of the Public Health Engineering Department, and it was expected to be approved in the next couple of days after which the department would accelerate its work on the project.

He said it would take maximum two months for the completion of the project. He said the project of laying pipelines on Bhimbar Road was started three months ago and maximum work had been completed on that project.

He, however, assured that both Madina Syedan Road and Bhimbar Road projects would be completed within two months.