The cash-strapped Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) has reportedly refused to complete the development work of around Rs 1,285 million at the Pakistan Textile City Limited.
According to sources, the shortage of finance was because of transfer of funds from the Ministry of Textile Industry to complete the ongoing development works.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) had withheld the earmarked funds for the said purpose after the flashfloods badly affected the country’s economy, sources in the water utility told Pakistan Today.
The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) had on November 30, 2006 approved the PC-I of the scheme – laying of 48 inch dia MS pipe from high point (forebay structure) to Pakistan Textile City Limited at a cost of at least Rs 636.585 million. However, due to apathy of the federal authorities the development work of the textile city was delayed and contract was awarded to M/s Shaikh Baz Khan and Brothers following set procedure of tendering and award for contract price of Rs 829.538 million on February 17, 2009, the sources told.
In addition, they said that the KWSB was liable to provide HR Coil to the contractor procuring it from Pakistan Steel at a cost of Rs 444.426 million and consultancy charges of Rs11.924 million, thus, the total cost of the project stood at Rs 1285.888 million.
In 2008-09, the KWSB had received only Rs 32 million from the Ministry of Textile against the allocation of Rs 218 million, while Sindh government had provided 50 million, they said, adding that water utility was facing shortage of funds during the current fiscal year i.e. 2009-10 in which it had received only Rs 50 million from the provincial government. However, the officials of the Ministry of Textile Industry were arbitrarily delaying the matter as not a single penny was released so far, they said.
The sources further said that presently the execution work was being carried out on snail’s pace due to dearth of funds. The funds released so far have been utilised properly, they said and added that the prices of materials to be used for the project were increasing with the passage of time.
Furthermore, KWsB MD had recently forwarded a letter to the Ministry of Textile Industry secretary urging the bureaucracy to interfere into the matter and ensure timely release of funds for the said project.
Interestingly, the KWSB has so far received no response from the federal bureaucracy, giving an impression that the authorities were not sincere for the economic progress in the country.
Furthermore, after being fed up with the negligent attitude, the KWSB had approached the Ministry of Textile to ensure early releases of allocated funds of Rs 246 million, they said and alleged that the request was supposed to have been dumped in the dustbin.
