ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel on Monday expressed concern over the delay in construction of Kashmir apartments in G-13 and directed the housing ministry to look into this stalled project.

Senate Standing Committee on Housing and Works, which met here with Senator Haji Hidayatullah in the chair, took up the project for discussion along with other items.

The building, once completed, will have 1,467 apartments. This project was highly prioritised by former prime minister Imran Khan, who not only performed the ground breaking of it but inspected it later.

However, during the PTI regime, the project could not be accelerated and after initial work, it remained almost halted. The committee was told that currently this project is in the execution phase and 16pc work on it has been completed.

Committee members were informed that due to unprecedented rise in the cost of construction material, the project saw inordinate delay. They were further informed that price adjustment included in the contract, in line with Pakistan Engineering Council’s standards and price adjustment guidelines, does not cover the current hyper escalation in prices of construction goods.

The ministry, they were told, is doing everything in its power to come to an amicable resolution and has forwarded a summary of the issues to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for approval of recommendations.

Officials from the ministry told the committee that inflation and its impact on all projects of Federal Government Employees Housing Authority (FGEHA) was being referred to the executive board for its guidance and advice.

Ministry officials were asked to submit details of all outsourced parties working on different projects for a thorough analysis.

Minister for Housing and Works Maulana Abdul Wasay also attended the meeting and briefed the committee about achievements, challenges and targets of his ministry.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2022