PESHAWAR, Aug 12: The Pakistan Housing Authority (PHA) is likely to restart work on the prime minister’s low-cost housing scheme at Nassapa Payan near Peshawar.

Officials said that the authority had stopped work on the multi-million housing scheme about a year ago. Under the original plan, the project was to be completed by Dec 2002.

A site engineer told Dawn here on Tuesday that the authority was reviewing plans to re-launch the project.

“We expect the PHA to start work within the next two weeks,” he said, adding that the authority had stopped work on the project due to financial and administrative problems.

Work on the housing scheme had begun in 1999. The estimated cost of the project was Rs100 million, comprising C- and D-type flats.

PHA had designed 216 flats of C and D categories. The price of the C-type flat ranges between Rs750,000 to Rs800,000 while the D-type flat’s price ranges between Rs630,000 to Rs 730,000. The payment was to be made in 12 to 16 instalments on quarterly basis and the minimum down-payment was 20 per cent.

A contractor said that the scheme could be completed in one year if the PHA resumed work on the project immediately, as 80 per cent work on building structures had already been completed.

He said that new tenders would be floated for the installation of the sewerage, gas and electricity supply networks, adding that negotiations were underway in this regard. The provision of utility services, he said, was not envisaged in the original plan.

Sources said that the PHA was working out a policy to minimise the unit price or increase the number of instalments to attract buyers.

Bankers said that the PHA housing scheme had received a lukewarm response in the NWFP. So far only 20 applicants had deposited their money in this regard, he said.