Beleaguered project: Park Enclave project due to kick off, again

At least 21 firms have shown interest in the development work; allottees still unconvinced.

ISLAMABAD:

As many as 21 construction firms have shown interest in developing the infrastructure of the much-delayed Park Enclave housing project.

City managers expected around 25 construction firms to participate in pre-qualification for the development of the 211-acre residential colony. The last date for submission of pre-qualification documents is May 20.

The scope of work includes development of the area, setting up road networks and storm water drainage, water supply systems, sewerage lines, landscaping and electrical work. The finance wing of the authority has estimated the total cost at Rs1.1 billion.

“The estimate was calculated on the NHA schedule of rates 2011 and does not include cost escalation. If that is included, the cost will be around Rs1.4 billion,” said a Capital Development Authority (CDA) finance wing official.

He said the authority had collected around Rs2.5 billion from 613 allottees, most of whom have submitted down payments and first instalments.

“Out of the Rs2.5 billion, the CDA has already spent Rs 2.1 billion to cover non-developmental expenditure, mostly staff salaries,” the official added.

He said there was only Rs400 million available in the Park Enclave account, which, he claimed, was sufficient to initiate developmental work at the site. He said, once the work begins, allottees would start submitting the remaining instalments, which they had stopped doing after the CDA failed to execute the project in the given time.

In addition to the initiation of pre-qualification of construction firms, the CDA has also sought requests for proposals for consultancy services for design, review and construction supervision of the project.

In 2012, the CDA had hired Nespak as its consultant for the project on single tender basis any competitive bidding as required by Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules. The move was criticised and the Cabinet Division later refused to endorse it, while asking the CDA to hire a consultant for the project after fulfilling all the requirements.

“The incumbent CDA management is taking keen interest in the project. We hope both the hiring of a consultant and a construction firm will be completed within two months,” said an engineering wing official.

He said the authority had already erected a boundary wall around the site. CDA spokesperson Asim Khichi said after the submitted documents would be scrutinised after the closing date had passed.

It’s not mere development of a housing colony, but a matter of restoring public confidence in CDA schemes, which were badly affected by the practices of previous managements, Khichi said.

He said incumbent management had focused on this project and it would be completed at earliest. He called upon the allottees to submit their outstanding instalments so that the developmental work could be accomplished within the given time.

On the other hand, plots allottees see the ongoing developments with doubt.

“I am not going to pay any more till there are on-the-ground signs of developments as per the original land use plan shown in the very first CDA brochure published in 2011],” plot allottee Aslam Mahmood Siddiqui, said on a social networking site.

A petition filed by a group of allottees is already pending with the Islamabad High Court, where the petitioners have challenged alleged changes to original layout plan of Park Enclave and the manipulated balloting process for plots in 2012.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2014.