The level of dust in Islamabad is so high that the three towers of Centaurus beyond the trees are barely visible. PHOTO: MUHAMMAD JAVAID/EXPRESS
ISLAMABAD:
The capital’s city managers were left dumbfounded after the Punjab government asked them to sign an agreement on behalf of the federal government under which they would pay an increased share of the already-controversial subsidy for the multibillion rupee metro bus project.
Earlier, the Punjab and federal governments had agreed to equally split the cost of the subsidy — which is need to ensure the project does not run into any financial hiccups once operational. The Punjab government has already been paying almost a subsidy of Rs5 million per day to keep the Lahore metro bus project running.
Punjab Metro Bus Authority (PMBA) — the operator of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project — has sent the CDA a draft of agreement, despite the fact that the CDA has no legal standing to sign it as it had no role in execution or operation of the project.
The CDA Ordinance 1960 says that CDA would be solely responsible for carrying out development activities within its municipal limits.
But the authority surrendered the right to construct the Islamabad-section of the project to the Rawalpindi Development Authority — which is executing the project — following Cabinet Division orders.
Now, the PMBA insists that the CDA sign the agreement, leaving city managers befuddled on what capacity they would be acting in.
Subsidy sharing formula
According to the draft agreement, seen by The Express Tribune, the Punjab government wants the subsidy shared, not on equal sharing basis, as was decided earlier, but on the basis of track length in each city.
The length of the track in Rawalpindi is 8.6 kilometres, while in Islamabad it is 13.9 kilometres.
The draft agreement says that now it will be shared on 38:62 ratio, with Punjab paying only 38 per cent of the subsidy and the federal government covering the rest.
This would, however, conflict with usage estimates, which suggest that the highest usage and benefit will be for residents of Rawalpindi.
CDA decides to consult Cabinet Division
“The CDA has sent the draft agreement to the Cabinet Division for an opinion,” said a senior CDA officer. He said federal government allocates subsidy amounts under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) after getting approval from different divisions and federal ministries.
He added that the CDA had no mandate to sign the agreement.
PMBA’s stance
Ozair Shah, the PMBA Operations general manager, told The Express Tribune that a PMBA representative will be in Islamabad next week to hold meetings with CDA officials to discuss the draft agreement and to answer related queries.
Shah refused to comment further, saying that the draft had yet to be signed by the contracting parties.
“Every clause in the draft will be discussed in detail before it is finalised. It’s premature to comment as no one knows what proposed clauses will be agreed upon or amended,” Shah concluded.
Incidentally, PMBA has yet to work out an estimate for the total subsidy required. Earlier, it was announced that bus fare will be a flat Rs 20 for a one-way trip, regardless of length.
“PMBA will be able to ascertain the exact subsidy amount when it will completes the award process for different service contracts related to the project,” said the office.
The multibillion rupee project was formally inaugurated on February 28, 2014. Initially, it was announced that project would be completed within just 10 months, but for a variety of reasons, it has since been delayed.
Earlier this week, Metro Bus Project Monitoring and Implementation Committee Chairman Hanif Abbasi said that the project will be completed by mid-February and blamed the delay on the months-long sit-ins staged by PTI and PAT in Islamabad.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 31st, 2015.
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