Uplift projects in limbo

Multibillion-rupee schemes to be rolled over to 2025

RAWALPINDI:

The ongoing and proposed multi-billion-rupee projects in Rawalpindi will once again be carried over to the upcoming year in an incomplete state, with only 16 days left in the outgoing year.

The proposed Leh Expressway Flood Channel and Sewerage Project worth Rs100 billion as well as the Rs100 billion first-phase project to supply 200 million gallons of water per day from Ghazi Barotha to the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, will also carry over into the new year with their proposed status.

According to sources, after being under consideration for the last thirty years, the revised Project Concept-I (PC-I) of the Rawalpindi Ring Road (RR) project, which was initiated during the tenure of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, is progressing at an extremely slow pace, which is worth Rs32.9 billion and approved by the CDWP forum on December 12 and has been sent to Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for further approval.

This project spans a length of 38.8 kilometres, starting from the GT Road at the Banth site and ending at the Thalian Motorway Interchange. Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) is the executing agency of this project.

The second proposed project of RDA, the Expressway Flood Channel and Sewerage Project (EFCSP), on which the ongoing work was halted in 2008, has now its cost increased from Rs27 billion to Rs100 billion.

The progress on this project after 2008 has amounted to little more than approvals from various forums, only to be shelved later.

The Mother and Child Project, which was inaugurated during the tenure of PML-Q government in 2002 with an initial cost of Rs2 billion, has now increased to Rs9 billion.

Despite the completion of its building, this 200-bed under-construction project will also carry to the New Year 2025 after 16 days with the title of "under-completion".

In the same way, water supply projects worth Rs33.859 billion, funded through an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan, remain incomplete. These include the installation of a water treatment plant at Chahan Dam, networking projects, and various initiatives to bring additional water to garisson city, reducing reliance on Rawal and Khanpur Dam.

These projects have either remained under consideration in bureaucratic meetings or failed to progress in 2024 and will now be deferred to 2025. Although the work on the underground cabling and beautification project in the commercial area of Rawalpindi Saddar with funding of Rs2 billion from the federal and provincial governments started in January 2024.