ATTOCK, June 22: The construction work on over Rs7 billion Ghabir Dam project, inaugurated by President Asif Ali Zardari on January 21, 2010, could not be started as yet.

The irrigation-cum-hydropower generation project is scheduled to be completed by early 2014.

The delay has disappointed the people of this arid area and given rise to speculations about the future of the project as they believe that if work on the project is not started within a year it would ultimately land in the cold storage.

They questioned that when the government had not done the spadework then why had they organized the inauguration ceremony.

Some of the local people were of the opinion that the inauguration ceremony was politically motivated and aimed at mustering public support in the Punjab against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

Earlier in 2010, the inauguration of the project gave hope to the people of this downtrodden and arid area and they started believing that the dam would not only give boost to the local agriculture sector by making the uncultivable land fertile but also bring overall development to this neglected area.

But the long delay in the start of the construction work has disappointed them.

Malik Maqsoodul Hasan and Malik Mehboob, social figures of the area said that there was still no sign of construction work at the project site, located in very remote Danda Shah Bilawal village of  Talagang tehsil.

They said the foundation stone had also been taken away reportedly by some government officials after some days of inauguration.

Whenever the people asked Wapda’s authorities about the start of construction work, they would assure that contract of such mega project had almost been finalised and work on it would soon be started as earlier there were some financialproblems, they said.

But still there was no development at the project site, which had been lying abandoned so far, they regretted.

When contacted, Wapda’s spokesman Rana Abid explained that Ghabir Dam Project was initiated as part of small/medium dam projects, for which financing was to be arranged through Exim Bank of China. Accordingly Wapda awarded the contract to Ms Dongfang on engineering, procurement and construction basis, he said.

However, the work on the project could not be initiated due to financial constraints, as financing from Exim Bank of China was delayed due to high interest rates, he said.

In the meantime, the contractor demanded increase in estimated cost of the project, which was not acceptable, and therefore, Wapda cancelled the contract and approached the 2nd lowest bidder, he said.

But the 2nd lowest bidder too demanded the increase which was not accepted, he said.

He said the bids for the construction of the projects would be re-invited on Bill of Quantities (BOQ) basis.