Rawalpindi:
The fate of the Rawalpindi district was suspended in terms of infrastructure development and progress last year while the serious financial crisis in Punjab turned out to be fatal for the district.
Despite major claims and noisy announcements, no mega development and public well-being project could be launched. Ten mega projects with revised rising costs have always been pending.
Due to the non-allocation of funds for these 10 projects in the past three years, these projects have become white elephants, because their estimated cost has swelled 40 to 60% due to the outbreak of building materials of the history of the country.
Among these 10 mega projects are the water supply of Ghazi Brotha, Ring Road, Leh Express, Daducha Dam, wastewater treatment plant, improving filtration factories of the Rawal dam, Zacha Bacha’s hospital (Mother -Child), Chahan Dam Supply Scheme, Commercial Parking Plaza, and the lie of the new small diameter pipeline in the obsolete cemented pipeline from the Rawal dam in the city of Rawalpindi.
Many other projects have also been added to the annual development program (ADP), but not even a single penny has been published for any of them. The Rawalpindi Development Authority (GDR), the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), the District Council and the Municipal Corporation (MC) have expressed their apologies for launching these projects due to the non-daponibility of funds.
Rawalpindi was supposed to obtain 400 million gallons of water per day in three phases of the Ghazi Barotha water supply project to meet the water needs for the next 100 years. To do this, a 60 km water pipeline of 80 diameters was to be placed from Ghazi Barotha to Sangjani. Its estimated cost was 17 billion rupees in 2006, which has now increased to RS105B due to continuous delays.
Leh Express, a 30 km signaling road project, was launched in 2008 but was closed when the PML-N came to power. Its estimated cost at the time was RS17B and has now reached RS100B today.
In the future, a wastewater treatment plant project was to be built to completely eliminate floods in the city of Rawalpindi during monsoons with an estimated cost of RS30B in 2019, which has now reached RS60B. Under this, a large pipeline of wastewater with 10 feet wide was to be placed on both sides of the lake.
Similarly, the 5,500 Kanal Gorakhpur water treatment plant was to be installed on the land of the wasa, but it was also delayed. The foundation stone of the Rawalpindi Ring Road (RRR) project was laid in 2022. The work began but was arrested when the government has changed. Over the past three years, the DRA officers and commissioners have made announcements on the RRR project each month, but delayed funding “practically” blocked the key project.
As the estimated cost of the 38 km long RRR increased by around 40% and that the files to prepare its new estimated cost have become a rolling stone between Punjab and the Federation. The chief minister of Punjab has established deadlines for the completion of the project three times but in vain.
The Daducha Dam project was launched in 2005 and the work on this subject began in 2021. But it also suffered due to the lack of funds, because its estimated cost increased by RS2B.
The new water supply project of the Chahan dam to meet the water requirements of the Union (UCS) and water (UCS) and canton areas was also confronted with a bit of funds. The estimated cost of the project was initially RS3B, which has now touched RS6B. This year, this key program has also been interrupted due to the non-decrease of funds.
