LARKANA, March 22: The construction of the revenue staff colony has been put on hold since 1992 on account of a row between its contractor and the Sindh government, an applicant of the housing scheme said on Saturday.

This project, which began in 1991 following its approval under the multi-dimensional security development programme, was to be completed in 18 months, sources in the district Nazim’s office told this correspondent. They added that the project was to cost Rs19.514 million in 1989-90 but it was subsequently revised to Rs37.272 million.

Under the project, 58 quarters of different categories and three bungalows were to be constructed within the stipulated time, they said.

The work on the project was halted after litigation cropped up between the contractor and the consultant. The project was restarted after the intervention of the Board of Revenue in 1997.

The half-complete quarters were occupied by the recruits studying in the Police Training School, Larkana. However, these quarters were eventually evacuated.

The lower staff of the revenue department, awaiting to possess these quarters, suffered a setback when a dispute surfaced between the Board of Revenue and the contractor and the construction work once again came to a halt in late 1997. At that time, the construction of only 16 quarters had been finalized, sources said.

They said that the project, which was to be completed by June 1992, was still unfinished even after the passage of 12 years.

This inordinate delay was a cause of worry for the applicants, sources said, adding that the project had been transferred to the district government.

The project, they said, would now be executed through the district government’s building department, adding that an amount of Rs15 million had been released in this regard.

The applicants are worried with the snail’s pace of the project, saying that the district government could hardly afford to spend half of the sanctioned amount till the end of the current fiscal year.

It was also learnt that renewed correspondence between the contractor and the department of building may affect the progress of the project.

The district government, sources said, should take steps to expedite the work and hand the quarters over to the lower revenue staff.