Highway construction delays leave NA panel exasperated

NHA tells Standing Committee on Communications that construction on Garho-Keti Bandar road will start within 15 days

ISLAMABAD:

A sub-committee of National Assembly’s (NA) Standing Committee on Communications on Monday expressed frustration over repeated assurances from the National Highway Authority (NHA) regarding construction of road connecting Garho to Keti Bandar and was assured that it would be started within 15 days upon their Executive Board’s approval.

A meeting of the standing committee, chaired by Syed Ayaz Ali Shah Shirazi, was held at Parliament House, wherein the convener told NHA officials that while they had been pushing deadlines on Garho-Keti Bandar road, nothing had been done so far.

NHA officials said that the project was delayed due to funds shortage and the contractor was given the first cheque in three installments. They added that the authority was opening assignment accounts for each project to streamline funds.

Shirazi said that NHA officers Tufail Sheikh and Arbab Ali had repeatedly deceived the committee, because of which the matter would now be referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Upon hearing this, the officials said that NAB should be avoided as it would cause further delays in the project. They said that they would seek approval for bridge financing from their executive board.

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The committee then directed the NHA to start construction within 15 days with the bridge financing approval.

Committee member Ramesh Lal said that regarding Sehwan Road, the NHA chief had said that the Sindh government had allocated money, but that road had not been completed till date. “There should be an FIR against the then-chairman Sikandar Quyyum, and action should be taken against member Sindh,” he added.

“When the news of a blacklisted contractor being given contract surfaced, I told Arbab, a member of NHA, ‘why is Sindh being mocked?’, and no project had been undertaken in Sindh in the past three months,” he further said.

“If nobody is going to listen to us, there is no point of this meeting,” Lal said. “When you were told about this, why did you give the contract to a blacklisted contractor?”

The committee also sought a report on Sehwan Road in the next meeting.