Leh project scaled back amid funds shortage

RDA seeks Rs20b to build sewer trunks in first phase of scheme

RAWALPINDI:

Due to the paucity of funds, the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) has limited the 168-kilometre-long signalfree Leh Expressway and Flood Channel project to the laying of sewerage trunks while seeking a supplementary grant of Rs20 billion from the Punjab government.

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 sewers and trenches to do away with flooding in Nullah Leh during monsoon.

The vital project, however, still awaits implementation with both provincial and federal governments failing to arrange funds.

The Nullah Leh Expressway project initially envisaged in 2007 had been estimated to cost Rs17 billion which was put on hold in 2008 when the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government came to power.

Since then, no headway had been made on the vital project and its estimated cost has risen manifolds.

In case of further delay, an exponential increase in its cost is expected to swell further.

The cost of the project is estimated to have surpassed Rs100 billion after the government failed to start work on the vital project for too long.

This is excluding the estimated sum of Rs30 billion, which will be required for the land acquisition.

In a letter written by the RDA through the Secretary Housing Punjab, it has been said that due to the cost of the Leh Expressway project being Rs100 billion and the non-availability of such funds, it will be appropriate to build only sewage trunks in the first phase on both sides of the Nullah Leh on an area of nine kilometres from New Katarian Bridge to Swan River.

In March this year, after a delay of over 16 years, a new feasibility was sought to start work on the project.

The project includes plans of diverting drainage water through protected trenches instead of open sewers and permanently eradicate floods.

“The sewage water may be safely transported outside the city through these sewer trunks without falling into Nullah Leh,” the contents of the letter read.

“It will not only resolve the issue of issue of environmental pollution from the open sewage of Nullah Leh but will also only have rainwater pouring through it and even the sewage from the federal capital won’t be able to get inside the nullah,” it suggested.

RDA Director General Muhammad Saif Anwar Jappa said if the open sewage from Nullah Leh is securely transferred outside the city through sizable sewer trunks in the first phase, it would not only stop environmental pollution but will also stop Nullah Leh from flooding during the monsoon season.

According to Jappa, the housing secretary has been asked to put the project in the Annual Development Programme if a supplementary grant cannot be provided for the said project.