LARKANA, May 3 Work on 34-kilometre link road from Tando Masti in Khairpur district to Larkana-Khairpur bridge has come to a stop since March 13 because of delay in payment of compensation to land owners.

The general manager of National Highways Authority, Abdul Aziz Langah, said that NHA had recently paid Rs100 million to the Khairpur district government to disburse the amount among people whose land had been acquired for the road. An instalment of Rs100 million was earlier paid to it, he said.

The Khairpur district government was pressing for en bloc payment while the NHA wanted to continue work and make payments simultaneously, he said. Therefore, work on this piece had come to a stop since March 13, which might cause delays, he said.

About pace of work 20-km link road connecting the bridge to the Indus Highway at Lal Bakhsh Bugti village in Larkana, he confirmed that work on this portion had also come to a halt for over 10 days for similar reasons but it had now resumed thanks to efforts of district coordination officer Syed Hassan Naqvi.

Total amount of compensation earmarked for land acquisition for this portion came to Rs417 million and so far Rs150 million had been disbursed among the affectees, said Irshad Kalhoro, resident engineer of the road.

The NHA personnel had urged their headquarters to immediately release the remaining amount of Rs267 million because the land owners were pressing for payment, said the sources.

Mr Langah said that 50 per cent of the amount had been paid and the rest would be paid over time. The road was scheduled for completion in June 2010 but now it would be completed in September 2010 because of delays caused by litigations.

Meanwhile, work on a portion of LArkana-Moenjodaro road near Moenjodaro had stopped since April 16 following objections raised by the department of archaeology, he said.

Mr Langah paid visit to the road along with DCO Syed Hassan Naqvi and NHA officials on last Friday. “We are in touch with the director of archaeology Qasim Ali Qasim to get an NoC for which the NHA has applied three weeks ago,” he said.

The work delays inflict losses on the authority when contractors start clamouring for compensation under the terms of agreement. Two small portions of an abandoned circular drain in the limits of Moenjodaro ruins which were damaged during work were outside the site but the archaeology department said that the authority had caused damage to the site itself, said Mr Langah.

He also disputed the department's claim that it was lifting sand from a place close to the protective embankment raised around the ancient ruins some time ago.

He feared further delays because the director general of archaeology department was planning to attend a conference in Paris this week.

The of 29-km Larkana-Moenjodaro road would be completed in February 2011 at a cost of Rs3,260 million. It was earlier scheduled to be completed in August 2010 but the date had to be pushed back due to the road's redesigning, said the sources.

Work at this portion near Arija turn had also stopped because the villagers were resisting the NHA's plan to have an straight alignment.

Resident engineer Akhtar Mangi said that NHA did pay compensation to people whose land had been acquired. People were mostly cooperative and put no hindrance to the work, he said.

Meanwhile, Subhan Memon, chairman of the chief minister's inspection team arrived here on Thursday to look into complaints about higher payments made to the land owners by the revenue department.

The team submitted its report to the chief minister after meeting the land owners, NHA officials and district administration.

Mr Langah said that as soon as the NHA received the report it would pay compensation in accordance with its recommendations.