Nullah Leh project still a pipe dream

Even though it is not the only source of pollution in Rawalpindi, the infamous Nullah Leh has always been pegged as the biggest contributor to pollution in the city, yet its revamp has been delayed regardless of who has been in power in Punjab.

It has been over a decade since the Leh Expressway and Flood Channel project was envisaged, to create an alternative route for traffic and to divert open sewage through safe trenches thus ending the risk of Nullah Leh flooding; however, it still awaits implementation.

Resultantly, the project which was supposed to cost Rs17 billion back in 2006-2007, under former president General Pervez Musharraf’s regime, will now cost more than Rs81 billion.

Muhammad Amin Baig, Deputy Director at the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), Punjab, believes that the sooner the project starts the better it is for Rawalpindi. “The pollution in the city is at drastic levels due to open sewage drains and the sheer volume of traffic.” As per the current plan, the project is to safely move open sewage through large trenches to the Soan River and then to the sewage treatment plant in Gorakhpur. Furthermore, an expressway is to be built from the river Soan to Islamabad on the banks of Nullah Leh.

The business community of Rawalpindi wants the project to be expedited as well albeit for different reasons. Malik Shahid Ghafoor Pracha, a businessman in the city, said that if a 17-kilometre alternative traffic route is established on the banks of Nullah Leh from the Soan River to Islamabad Expressway, “not only the traffic on Murree Road, Peshawar Road, Rawal Road, and Islamabad Expressway will be reduced but it will have a positive impact on business activities due to the elimination of traffic problems.”

However, sources privy to the matter said that the four strict conditions imposed by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) have been a major hurdle in executing the current plan.

These strict conditions include project clearance to be obtained through an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report; the Private Public Partnership Authority (PPPA) to approve the cost of the project; investors to be found for the land acquisition of the project; and an estimated amount of Rs24 billion to be borne by the Punjab government as the federal government will not share the costs.

Chairman Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), Raja Tariq Mehmood Murtaza, when asked about the delays and the strict conditions, stated: “The reason for the delay in the project is the frequent changes in the model of the project, the cost of urban regeneration, planning on Public Private Partnership (PPP), and government funding.” Murtaza informed that work on the new PC1 had started and matters like increasing the depth of the Nullah Leh and reducing the land acquisition for the traffic route to reduce the cost of the project would be addressed. While the RDA Chairman did not give a date as to when this process would be completed, he had high hopes for the project.

“This establishment of a commercial area on the project’s route will increase property values and business activities resulting in more income for the city,” Murtaza said while talking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2022.