KARACHI, June 9: The Sindh government is considering taking over the incomplete structure of the Hyatt Regency project and to use it as a secretariat, it is reliably learnt.

Informed sources said that Sindh Governor, Mohammedmian Soomro, has directed the concerned department to consider taking over the pending project.

He gave this instruction while presiding at a recent cabinet meeting when the issue to add a few more stories to the New Sindh Secretariat building came up, so that offices of the provincial government functioning in dilapidated old barracks could be shifted there.

According to the sources, the location of the project is suitable for the secretariat as the Chief Minister House, Governor’s House, State Guest House, Qasr-i-Naz, Commissioners’s Office, PIDC House and Bhittai Rangers Headquarters are also located in the vicinity.

The Hyatt Regency was earlier floated by the privatization commission for inviting bids of expression of interest from reputable investment banks for pre-qualification by April 20 for the disposal of assets, lease rights and structure allotted to HRH. But the commission, it appeared, failed to attract response from reputed investors.

The project, which was being constructed as a franchise hotel of the chain of Hyatt Regency, standing in the vicinity of Club Road on Maulvi Tameezuddin Khan Road, was initiated during the regime of (late) Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the mid-70s.

The principal amount invested in the HRH was to the tune of Rs276 million which, with the passage of time and accumulation of interest had, according to a rough estimate, turned into Rs1.2 billion.

Before the project could take off, the change of government in 1977 blocked its fate and since then it has remained as an eyesore for onlookers.

This is one of the projects recommended to the government in January by the committee of the Task Force for Economic Revival of Urban Sindh, headed by Shahid Firoze. It was stated that all incomplete projects standing with bare structures since many years for want of decision be either revitalized or demolished.

The committee was of the view that such projects have not only turned into an eyesore, but are also a manifestation of an adverse image of Karachi to investors.

Presiding at the meeting as also the chairman of the EDC, Mr Soomro reiterated the resolve of the government to reinvigorate Karachi.