KARACHI, March 6: The Defence Housing Authority, despite allocating Rs900 million for many development projects, may not be able to spend its entire uplift budget because of some procedural delays.

This was stated by the DHA administrator, Brig Maqsood Hussain, at a press conference on Saturday.

Shedding light on the waterfront development project, he said the DHA had initiated an ambitious $600 million project, which, he said, would turn 14 kilometres of Karachi's beach into a model beach, in a phased manner, over the next eight to ten years.

The administrator said the DHA was expecting to earn at least Rs3.2 billion in returns.

Brig Hussain, who took charge of the DHA on Aug 13, 2003, a day before the city was hit by an oil slick following the breaking of Tasman Spirit into two, dispelled misgivings about the slow pace of progress on many development projects.

"Every proposal that foreign investors bring to us is carefully examined by our financial and legal advisers. This process takes time. The projects are submitted to the DHA executive board only when they have been minutely evaluated," he explained.

He added that the DHA would receive foreign as well as local investment to the tune of five billion dollars over the next eight years.

Commenting on the pace of progress on combined power and desalination plant, he said that contracts with Siemens AG Germany and Pakistan had been signed for a 94 megawatt capacity power plant, utilizing natural gas as fuel, and for a three million gallon per day desalination plant using waste heat of the power plant. "A contract for this has been signed with a Swedish company, Alpha Laval. A power purchase agreement with the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation has been finalized and a fuel supply agreement with the Sui Southern Gas Company has also been concluded. The work on the installation of the power and desalination plants, being shipped from Germany and Sweden respectively, will start next month and will be completed within 24 months," he said.

Brig Hussain said he was most perturbed about traffic accidents that occurred in the DHA. "The DHA has signed a contract with a firm, which will install traffic-lights at 45 crossings. The lights would have LED signals, vehicles actuated signals and digital timers. The entire project would cost Rs26.8 million," he said.

He said according to international standards, major arteries and roads were not supposed to have speed-breakers. "But a horrible accident on Beach Avenue made us realize that speed-breakers are needed. Similarly, all link roads off main roads will also have speed-breakers," he said.

He said he had asked high-ranking police officials to depute more traffic police in the DHA.

Speaking about the Creek City project, Brig Hussain said the project would contribute a lot towards the economic and social uplift of the city. He added that work on the first phase of the project was progressing at a satisfactory pace. He said the project was being monitored by Meinhardt, a Singapore-based leading engineering and planning consultant firm. He promised that the second phase of the project would be announced soon.

The administrator said refurbishment of old phases would begin shortly, adding that Phase-I would be refurbished within 10 months. He added that consultants had been engaged and tasked to carry out the refurbishment plan.

Speaking about the DHA plan of cancelling vacant plots, Brig Hussain said the move was finalized at the request of area residents. He pointed out that vacant plots not only gave a dirty look to a locality, but they also became dens of petty criminals.

He agreed with a newsman who said that with the amount of money that the residents of the DHA were spending on private security agencies, the authority could run its own police force.