CM justifies escalation in cost of K-IV project

Under the project, 650MGD water will be provided to Karachi

HYDERABAD: With almost a three-fold increase to Rs75 billion in the cost of K-IV water supply project for Karachi under consideration for the approval, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah believes that the hike is justified. "The project was 'ill-conceived' as it excluded certain vitally indispensable components," he told the media in Thatta district on Saturday after visiting the project site where the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) contractor briefed the CM.

He pointed out the major components like construction of a bridge on Nooriabad-Thatta road over the canal, 50 megawatts (MW) power plant, small and big bridges, land acquisition and pumping stations which stood omitted from the PC-1. "When the project started the cost kept going up and up because necessary components were being included."

Under the project 650 million gallons per day (MGD) water will be provided to Karachi from river Indus through K B Feeder canal via Keenjhar lake. However, initially phase-I of the project, which is under the execution, is limited to 260MGD.



Shah said that if a Project Steering Committee (PSC) had been constituted for the K-IV project many stumbling blocks and delays would have been averted. He said that a broad-based PSC for the K-IV and its supplementary projects under the planning and development chairperson is being constituted.

The CM acknowledged the role of Supreme Court mandated Water Commission in expediting the project's progress through regular monitoring, settlement of the issue of route realignments, preparation and early implementation of the supplementary projects.

The CM said that the project's feasibility study was carried out in July 2007, which finalised one of the nine routes for the project. The route number eight was finally selected for being technically feasible, he added.

He recalled that the PC-1 for 260MGD project was prepared in 2010 but it was approved after a delay of over four years in 2014 by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC). The construction, with a 24-month timeline, began in June 2016.

Shah said that the Sindh government has so far released Rs15.05b and the Federal government Rs12.15b. A sum of Rs51.3b is still required to complete the project for which the province will have to share Rs26.7b and the Centre Rs24.6b. "We would finalise the detailed cost estimates of the project which are being estimated at Rs75b," he added.

The CM said he has discussed the cost sharing issue with the Federal Water Minister Faisal Vawda. "The purpose of my visit is to observe first-hand the things so that I can talk to the Federal government. The Federal government should also share the enhanced cost."

The PC-I of Rs25.55b was approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) in July 2014, with 50% cost of Rs25.55b to be shared between Sindh and the federal governments. The Sindh government awarded K-IV Project phase-I FWO in March 16, 2016.

The land for K-IV was acquired for Rs5b including 1,052 acres of private land and 11,936 of government land. The provincial government has released Rs3.75b and the other tranche of funds is in the pipeline.



Under augmentation of the project three water filtration plants of K-IV Project will be connected with the existing bulk water supply system of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB). The CM noted that the augmentation project should have been initiated simultaneously with the K-IV project but it was also delayed.

In the energy component, power supply of 50MW to the pumping stations was initially planned to be provided by the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company. In February 2018, the Sindh government approved the establishment of 50MW power plant for pumping stations under the Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, FWO Director-General Major General Inam Hyder Malik, KWSB Managing Director Khalid Mehmood Shaikh, K-IV Project Director Asad Zamin, Thatta Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Nawaz Soho and other officers of FWO and KWSB were at the briefing.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2018.