Safe City Islamabad: Project dropped after challenge in court

Top decision-making body drops multi-billion-rupee project envisaged to secure Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD:

A top decision-making body on Wednesday dropped a multi-billion-rupee project envisaged to secure Islamabad in the wake of increasing terror threats, a day after the Supreme Court admitted a petition questioning transparency in the scheme.

The Central Development Working Party (CDWP), led by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Dr Nadeemul Haq, did not approve the ‘Safe City Islamabad’ project, which had an estimated cost of Rs12.9 billion ($151.2 million).

“I decided to drop the project after finding out about the Supreme Court notice,” said Haq while talking to The Express Tribune.

A petitioner, Shahid Orakzai, filed a petition in the apex court, seeking its intervention for stopping alleged corruption in the project. The Supreme Court issued notices to the parties and called them for hearing on March 25.

The Safe City Islamabad project was aimed at beefing up security in the capital by installing CCTV cameras, explosive detectors and scanners at entry and exit points.

However, the scheme became controversial when a committee reported that the cost of the project was much higher than it should be. A Planning Commission official said the committee, formed by the government, estimated that the total cost of the project was not more than Rs6.7 billion ($78 million), a gap of Rs6.2 billion between the committee’s assessment and the interior ministry’s PC-I. The official added that the Planning Commission’s technical wing also raised certain objections over the project’s viability.

The approved projects

The body, however, approved four other projects regarding reconstruction of canals and embankments in Sindh and Balochistan costing Rs51 billion following damage done by last year’s floods.

The Sindh Flood Emergency Reconstruction of Bunds (embankments) and Canal project costing Rs20.9 billion was cleared in principle but a committee, headed by member infrastructure Planning Commission, was formed to resolve the issue of federal and provincial financial components of the scheme. The Asian Development Bank will extend a loan of Rs18.8 billion for the project.

With approval of the four new schemes, total development projects have reached 1,826 worth Rs4.1 trillion.

In the transport sector, CDWP approved a Rs14.7 billion project to rebuild the damaged communication infrastructure along Right Bank Outfall Drain-I in Sindh.

CDWP also approved two projects of Balochistan pertaining to reconstruction of Right Bank Outfall Drain-III and rehabilitation of other damaged infrastructure. The total cost of these projects is estimated to be over Rs15.5 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2011.